Bolt, the ride-hailing platform formerly known as Taxify, has introduced Bolt for Business, a new service that allows companies to manage and pay for corporate trips.
The on-demand taxi service currently operates in 12 cities and towns across five provinces in SA, and has a footprint in over 30 countries globally.
The Bolt for Business addition allows organisations to book rides on a large scale, for their employees and clients travelling to and from different locations.
The company says it hopes to democratise access to jobs by removing the ‘own transport required’ condition for employment.
Bolt recently underwent a global rebrand, introducing a new logo and changing its name from Taxify.
“We have launched Bolt for Business after noticing that a growing number of Bolt trips are taken for business purposes during working hours, whether it’s commuting to work, rushing to client meetings or getting to the airport,” explains Gareth Taylor, country manager for Bolt SA.
Available on desktop and mobile, the platform competes with Uber for Business, which has around 65 000 organisations across the globe using it on a regular basis, according to Uber.
“In a country with unreliable public transport and high costs of car ownership, Bolt for Business offers a convenient and cost-efficient solution to business travel. It also provides an alternative transport option for the many young people entering the workplace who cannot yet afford their own vehicle, or who actively choose to not buy a car.
“In addition, Bolt for Business is the perfect solution for entrepreneurs and SMEs, where time is money and hours spent in traffic can be put to better use if someone else, like a driver on the Bolt platform - is driving.”
Bolt for Business enables companies to allocate a monthly budget to individual employees, ensuring that all employees who travel for business enjoy the benefits of personal transport without the often prohibitive costs associated with vehicle ownership, adds Bolt.
The travel management solution gives companies the ability to offer employee groups, clients and recruits the option to utilise the Bolt service at the company’s expense, and gives account managers the ability to set and customise spending allowances and the number of trips employees can take on a single dashboard.
In a country with unreliable public transport and high costs of car ownership, Bolt for Business offers a convenient and cost-efficient solution to business travel.
All the information about the employees’ corporate Bolt trips is stored on a single dashboard and companies can pay Bolt once a month via a bank transfer.
The company says additional functionalities such as adding restrictions to specific times and locations for taking trips, as well as a prepaid payment method, will be added to Bolt for Business later this year.
Bolt was founded by Markus Villig, CEO, in 2013 and launched locally in April 2016. The company says it has over 25 million passengers in 30 countries of operation.
Its investors include Daimler, Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus.
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