European ride-hailing firm Bolt is launching in New Zealand. Pictured is Bolt's New Zealand country manager Adam Muirson. Photo / Dean Purcell
European ride-hailing firm Bolt is launching in New Zealand. Pictured is Bolt's New Zealand country manager Adam Muirson. Photo / Dean Purcell
European ride-hailing firm Bolt is launching in Auckland today, with plans to expand around the country in direct competition with Uber and DiDi.
Dynamic pricing makes direct comparisons between ride-sharing services tricky. So does a raft of different vehicle-class options and, in DiDi’s case, even an option to bargain aprice with a driver if you’re game for it.
Off-peak, against rush-hour rides from the Herald to a cafe in Hobsonville, booked minutes apart on Bolt's launch day. From left: Bolt, Uber and DiDi. All promised a driver within a minute. Given drivers are part-time contractors, it was possible it was the same driver for all three. Montage / Chris Keall
But Bolt New Zealand country manager Adam Muirson says: “While we can’t control the pricing or response of our competitors, we believe New Zealand partner drivers should earn more for their work and riders should receive a reliable service at an affordable price.
“At launch, we plan to achieve this in a number of ways, including offering higher commission for drivers than what the industry currently offers and lower rider fares than the incumbent.”
There will be goodies for drivers who sign up, but Muirson won’t give details.
He can give one concrete assurance: there will be no surge pricing, at least at launch (although in some countries, the multinational player has added surge pricing later).
For drivers, Muirson says Bolt is the most efficient operator so can pass on the best deals.
Driver chatter holds that Bolt is offering a flat 20% commission, versus 22% to 28% for Uber, depending on whether a driver is GST-registered. DiDi says it only takes a 10% clip of the ticket, according to its Melbourne-based Australia-New Zealand head of communications and government affairs, Dan Jordan.
There is no equivalent to Uber Business, which lets a company create accounts for staff members for easy expense records, but Muirson says the feature could be added down the track.
While services offer some degree of information-sharing about a ride for safety, Muirson says Bolt offers expanded options with:
Share location: allows drivers and riders to share a real-time trip link via email, SMS, WhatsApp or Telegram, enabling others to track the ride live.
Rider/driver unmatching: if a rider rates a trip with one star, it automatically unmatches the rider from a driver for future requests.
Trusted contacts: this feature allows riders and drivers to add names and phone numbers of friends or relatives to a list of contacts for their account, and the safety team will be able to get in touch with them if the account holder can’t be reached.
Muirson says the driver unmatching is unique to Bolt, but concedes that the same driver could be encountered on another ride-hailing service (a quirk of Uber’s legal fight to keep its drivers as contractors, rather than employees, is that they form a ready-made, part-time workforce for rivals, easing the entry of rivals into the New Zealand market – even if it ultimately hasn’t worked out for the likes of the recently departed Ola).
European ride-hailing firm Bolt is launching in New Zealand. Pictured is Bolt's New Zealand country manager Adam Muirson. Photo / Dean Purcell
Drivers will be subject to random “selfie” tests to make sure the person behind the wheel matches their ID, Muirson says. On the carrot side of things, drivers will get 24/7 support – and it will be based locally, he says (Uber closed its Auckland office in 2019 and now runs its New Zealand operation from Sydney).
And via Bolt’s app, it says: “Partner-drivers or riders can discreetly and quickly let our emergency response team know that they need assistance and there will be an immediate welfare call made.”
Opposition hits back
The opposition isn’t sitting on its hands.
DiDi’s Jordan said the firm would be launching a series of driver and rider promotions today to counter Bolt’s launch.
These would include a $350 sign-up bonus for new drivers and, for passengers, 50% off their first ride, up to a $20 limit.
“The ride-hailing market in New Zealand has been stagnant for years, with a lack of decent competition. This has meant consistently bad deals for both drivers and riders – they’ve had limited choice, rising prices and declining service standards. Bolt’s here to change that. We believe that we just do it better," Muirson said.
Unlike Uber, there won’t be electric vehicle (EV) incentives for drivers but Muirson says they could be added post-launch. Uber’s “green” vehicle category of car does not include hybrids such as the ubiquitous Prius. Bolt’s will.
Muirson added: “New Zealand has the highest car ownership rate in the world, but that’s changing. Young Kiwis are driving less and the costs of owning and maintaining a car keep rising. Bolt’s mission is to reduce private car dependency by offering access to reliable, affordable shared transport.”
Bolt was founded in 2013 in Estonia and was initially known as Taxify.
Today, the firm says it has operations in more than 50 countries and 600 cities, providing shared mobility services including ride-hailing, scooter and e-bike rental and car rental to over 200 million lifetime customers. Bolt launched in Australia in 2018 but pulled out in mid-2020, blaming the pandemic.
Beijing-based DiDi bought Uber’s operation in China (where the US ride-hail giant had been struggling) in a complex deal in 2016 that left each firm holding a minority stake in the other.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
