<<Print>>A digital taxi service for Ghanaian taxi drivers called "Tap and Go" has been launched in Accra by the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in conjunction with the Office of the Vice President.
The Tap and Go, which works like the established taxi apps such as Uber, Yango and Bolt is being piloted in some parts of Accra; Airport, East Legon, University of Ghana, Circle/Kaneshie area and Dansoman, before it is fully rolled out nationwide next year.
Speaking at the launch of the app in Accra on Thursday, December 14, 2023, the National Chairman of the GPRTU, Nana Nimako Bresiamah said the app is the result of a collaboration between the GPRTU and the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who he stressed listened to their concerns of losing their business to online foreign taxi services.
"The taxi driving business as we all know has been taken online by many foreign companies and for our members who were still operating the old way, we were gradually getting out of business and the launch of this app through the support and efforts of Vice President Bawumia is a timely intervention to save our business”, the GPRTU National Chairman said.
He revealed that following the negative effects of many foreign taxi apps on the operations of Ghanaian taxi drivers, the GPRTU met with Dr. Bawumia to express their concerns and the Vice President assured them of a solution, a promise, he emphasized, has been realized.
The Chairman, on behalf of the GPRTU, expressed immense gratitude to Dr. Bawumia for this intervention.
"We really want to express our utmost gratitude to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for the concern he showed when we met him and also intervening on our behalf through this app to aid our business. This is really our own. The other apps are controlled by foreign interests but this is our own and it is truly Ghanaian.
"I really want to caution drivers or members of GPRTU not to use the app in a negative way to extort Ghanaians. We want to operate this app effectively and professionally to offer Ghanaians great service so that we will continue to protect the integrity of the GPRTU", he said.
The taxi drivers also expressed satisfaction and commended Vice President Bawumia for saving their business.
John Kofi Tawiah, a taxi driver in Kaneshie, stated; "I want to thank Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for this great initiative. The truth is that we were losing jobs through the many apps. Now, we have our own app and this will help us because we will not be roaming around wasting fuel to look for passenger."
Another taxi driver, George Nii Ayi Tagoe, who operates at University of Ghana (Legon) campus also added his voice saying "we want to thank Dr. Bawumia for getting our taxi business online. For us on Legon campus, this will really help us because we were completely losing business to online taxi apps. Now, the competition will be favourable".
To Samuel Amoah, the Deputy Public Relations Officer of GPRTU, he was grateful to the leadership of the Union and the Vice President for helping the drivers.
"This is a very good app and we want to express our gratitude to the leadership of the GPRTU for taking this initiative to discuss our plight with Vice President Bawumia. And we thank Dr. Bawumia too for helping us with this Tap and Go app.
"We park at the stations for hours without patronage and when they roam around in town too, they waste fuel due to foreign taxi companies online. This will really help us..."
The Tap and Go taxi app is uniquely built with added features to meet various aspects of Ghanaian taxi service such as 'private dropping' (private cars operating as taxis) and 'metered service' where a passenger instantly stops a taxi in the middle of the road and a meter is turned on to determine the charge in addition to the usual online service app.
There are two Tap and Go applications namely "Tap and Go" for users and "Tap n Go Driver" for interested taxi drivers.
Both apps can be downloaded from Google Play and Apple Stores.
Among the requirements for registration for interested taxi drivers is the Ghana Card which is to ensure all drivers in the database can be traced.
Other GPRTU executives present at the launch were Godfred Abulbire, the General Secretary, Emmanuel Nii Ankrah, National Vice Chairman, Jacob Odae, National First Trustee and Seth Tetteh Greater, Accra Regional Vice Chairman among others.