The Estonian-based company announced today it will allow ‘drivers [to] name their price’ following driver complaints surrounding being unable to view journeys prior to accepting them.
“Drivers have consistently asked us for the ability to set their own prices so they can ensure a journey is profitable enough before it’s accepted,” commented Sam Raciti, Bolt’s regional manager for western Europe.
The price picking intends to eliminate peak demand price surges, as well as eradicate the common occurrence of drivers canceling due to the arrival of a more appealing, and probably longer, job.
“By making these changes we hope to reduce waiting times on the Bolt app and have fewer driver cancellations so customers can get to their destination quickly and safely following increased demand in recent weeks,” added Raciti.
The ride-hailing application which has 65,000 drivers on its UK books revealed that customers will have the choice of picking from a selection of available Bolt drivers from a list of shown prices.
“We have built our business around giving drivers total flexibility, [and] these changes are part of that philosophy and will create a better functioning marketplace,” said Raciti.
These alterations to Bolt’s operations came under a week after Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) announced that it was increasing London fares by 10% in an attempt to attract more drivers at a time of driver shortages.
The shortages is due to the surge in demand, post-lockdown, which rebounded far more quickly than the company had anticipated.
“The supply side in terms of drivers…just haven’t been able to catch up yet,” said Markus Villig, co-founder and CEO of Bolt.
Uber also revealed it will increase airport journeys by 25% in peak times.
Bolt was valued at $4.75bn in early August, according to CNBC, while Uber has a market capitalisation of US$88bn, per Google Finance.
