Uber
Current Market Condition
Instructions:
Your goal is to grow Uber in Lagos, Nigeria. Create a business plan
What will be your 6 months plan? Highlight your monthly plan. Suppose the city currently has 100 drivers. What is your vision to grow the city?
How would you sign up drivers and driver partners (supply side) and how would you grow riders (passengers)
Come up with a marketing plan
Show a driver income analysis
Highlight potential issues you may witness with regulatory bodies and how you will overcome it.
Show a projection of number of drivers you will sign up in 6 months and number of rides/trips
What are some of the KPIs (key performance indicators)/metrics that you would want to focus on to judge how the market is doing overall?
Propose a partnership, how it would work
Do a marketing laundry list of ideas (campaigns)
It is very important to show numbers and use of graphs
Solution
Current Market Condition
Uber is a taxi company based on technology that assist customers found taxis that are comfortable from any location by just using an application on a smartphone (Schneider, 2015). The Uber application is downloaded by the customer on his or her phone. At the time a taxi is needed, one uses the application to request for one. Through the use of an algorithm that is special, the application is able to match the customer to the nearest available taxi that is pre-verified and offers the estimate of the fare (Schneider, 2015). Additionally, the app charges the customer automatically through the registered card and pays the driver directly through his bank account on a weekly basis. Thus, no cash exchange is required during the exchange. Once the ride ends, the breakdown of the fare is send to the customer through the email.
Uber only offers the software that links the driver and customer, thus, the company does not possess any vehicle. At this point is where partnership is considered. Money is made by people in the platform of Uber by driving their cars individually and picking customers who require Uber services (Cramer, & Krueger, 2016). Besides this, one can put a fleet of cars and hire drivers to drive on the Uber network. The goal of this paper is to create a business plan focused on the growth of Uber in Lagos Nigeria.
Six months plan
In the first six months, Uber will be launched in Lagos, Nigeria since the city has a great potential of riders around the areas within Lagos. Uber in Lagos will have users that range professionals trying to avoid the notorious traffic jam in the roads, people going for parties and are avoiding the risks of drinking and driving, students sharing a vehicle as well as taking the sick to hospitals including other people within its areas. During the first six months of growing Uber in Lagos, a lot will be expected in terms of setting up the requirements for the business. Among them will be acquiring vehicles to run the operation of Uber in the city of Lagos, finding qualified drivers, and acquiring all the regulatory requirements for the business. Having 100 drivers during the first month, the vison is increase the number of Uber taxis in Lagos as well as other cities and make it an ultimate choice for every customer.
In the first months, the business will focus of meeting the required regulatory requirements in order to become an Uber partner in the city of Lagos. In addition, during the first six months focus will be ensuring the growth of Uber in Lagos.
The competence and Experience of Signing up Drivers
Drivers will be selected through a criteria based on research and recommendation from companies in Lagos that issue insurance services. Drivers that will selected will undergo a pre-drug test as well as a random test and will be conducted by a pooling system from an external vendor. In addition, a record check for the vehicle will be done and analyzed for a driving history that is acceptable. This will be done after every six months. Also, drivers will be asked to report any accidents or tickets.
The fact that the entire operation of Uber is affected by the quality of the driver including the safety of others, it is important that create a program to select drivers. Among the protocols to be observed include: the establishment of a criteria that is realistic for the driver, outline the necessary functions of the position of a driver, experience and level of skills required, the physical and mental qualities such as vision, hearing and health needed to safety perform the task.
Driver Income Analysis and Expectations
After a period of the first six months, Uber in Lagos is expected to have hired over 200 drivers and making trips across the city of Lagos and its environs.
In a single week, an Uber Partner cover approximately 30 hours. According to analysis, an Uber driver averagely makes 981 Naira in a trip. In every hour, drivers are able to complete two trips. Thus the total earn per hour sums up to 1962 Naira. On a weekly basis, an Uber driver averagely works for 30 hours, thus the weekly earnings total up to 58,860 Naira and translates to a total of 1,530,360 Naira.
Regulatory Issues
Among the potential issues that one may witness with the regulatory for a vehicle owner with a plan of employing someone to drive in Lagos include: a car that is in a very good condition and will be inspected by Uber (Atubi, 2011). For identification services, all drivers must provide their driving license. A third-party insurance certificate for all the vehicles will be required as well as the clearance papers from the inspection by Uber.
Besides this, a certificate of incorporation for a registered company will be required as a proof of self-employment and not an Uber employee. A part from the knowledge concerning Lagos, a smart phone that is GPS enabled will be required. Uber offers Samsung Galaxy S5 mini at a value of N50, 000 as well as a weekly data deduction of N1500 using the Etisalat network. The whole process may take approximately two weeks.
Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy of the Uber business will be based on the experience that customers are offered as well as the value the value that is derived by the customer and the amount incurred as compared to other taxi companies that are available in Lagos.
In terms of positioning, the marketing strategy will aim at setting Uber as an ultimate choice for customer experience. The experience will be more customized so as to enable the customer select the type of vehicle, driver he or she wants as well as the platform to offer feedback concerning the experience.
The experience to the user will be efficient by giving them a chance to request for a ride by using the application since the customer can offer information concerning the destination as well as offering back the customer the location of the user. In addition, the user is given an alert when the vehicle arrives at the required location.
On the other hand, marketing will use social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter among others to do advertisement. Uber kiosks, special promotions as well as word of mouth will be used so as to influence the target population in the city of Lagos. Different television stations will also be used to create more awareness to the people.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the applied quantitative and qualitative measures to review and track the progress of an organization based on its goals. In the growth of Uber in Lagos, a number of KPIs will be considered. Among them will include customer satisfaction KPIs, financial perspective KPIs, safety KPIs, Security KPIs and environmental KPIs.
Customer satisfaction is the key indicator in Uber business in Lagos. The Uber platform offers a way of that customers can comment on the service (Atubi, 2011). The analysis of such comments will be important in determining the overall performance of the market. The financial perspective is another important KPI since it measures the total revenue and the operating costs in naira. This will be project the future benefits of the Uber business.
Under safety KPIs, Lagos is a city that is highly prone to motor traffic thus prone to accidents since the largest percentage of traffic accidents occur in such areas (Akinbami, & Fadare, 2000). Thus safety of the vehicle as well as the passenger is important in determining performance of the market. On the other hand, security is an issue for both the driver and the passenger. Past experience has shown that some criminals board taxis and use them to commit crimes. It is important to consider security as a KPI in the city of Lagos so as to have a good focus of the market (Akinbami, & Fadare, 2000). Lastly, the business should ensure that environmental pollution and noise is well handled through ensuring that vehicles produce minimal air pollution as well as less noise that may affect customers.
Partnerships
Through Uber, partnerships will be created with major restaurants, hotels, clubs and top bars in Lagos in order to offer passengers rides at discounted rates.
Marketing Laundry list of ideas
Uber Summer
It is summer season, everybody tour places. Uber will be partnering with recreational areas across Lagos and its areas like Apapa, Downtown Lagos and other places to ensure that no one misses the season. Throughout the season, keep connected with friends and family through Uber Summer.
Uber Fun
Have fun and enjoy life. It is a season to party big time. Catch up a ride with Uber and enjoy discounted fare rate of up to 20% the normal rate. Uber minds your fun, don’t miss out the fun to your preferred place.
Uber Lagos
Take a ride on Uber around Lagos and save time. Tour Victoria Island among other areas and save yourself more for another day. Great offers are available once you sign up.
References
Akinbami, J., & Fadare, S. (2000). Strategies for sustainable urban and transport development in Nigeria. Transport Policy, 4(4), 237-245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0967-070x(97)00022-x
Atubi, A. (2011). Road Transport System Management and Traffic in Lagos, South Western Nigeria. African Research Review, 4(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/afrrev.v4i4.69243
Cramer, J., & Krueger, A. (2016). Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber. American Economic Review, 106(5), 177-182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20161002
Hua, J., & Ray, K. (2017). Beyond the precariat: race, gender, and labor in the taxi and Uber economy. Social Identities, 1-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2017.1321721 Schneider, A. (2015). Uber Takes the Passing Lane: Disruptive Competition and Taxi-Livery Service Regulations. Elements, 11(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.6017/eurj.v11i2.9060