InDrive is making a splash in Zim. Can it dethrone Vaya and Hwindi?

Let’s talk about InDrive. It’s on billboards, on the radio, and even in all our YouTube videos in the form of ads. It’s the latest addition to ride-hailing services in Zimbabwe but is it better than the established players?

Pay what you feel is fair

InDrive runs on the model of paying what you feel is fair. It is a negotiation between you and the driver. As is with any service that requires payment in Zimbabwe, there is always some room to haggle. In the app, you have a recommended fare for the trip to give you a starting point. You can then go over or under depending on what you as the commuter feel is fair. 

The driver will also see these offers and only accept an offer that seems fair to them. So your success rate at getting a driver to accept your request is very much dependent on how liberal you are with your funds. It can be an advantage if let’s say you are in a hurry. You can double the recommended fare for your trip and secure a ride a lot quicker. And if you are too cheap you might fail to secure a ride.

Versus the competition

So versus other competing ride-hailing apps, it’s very much in the middle when it comes to pricing. InDriver seems to be undercutting the likes of Hwindi and Vaya but the gap is very small. And also, on payments, InDrive will most certainly solve the change issue. Rides that cost dollars and cents can just be rounded off during negotiations.

Where they will be caught lacking is the flexibility of payment. Hwindi and Vaya allow both USD and ZW$ as payment options. InDriver is strictly USD. That said, paying in Z$ is quite expensive. At the time of writing this article, Hwindi was using a rate of ZW$2000 to the dollar and Vaya ZW$2287 to the dollar.

InDrive is making a splash in Zim. Can it dethrone Vaya and Hwindi?

Their global footprint

In terms of scale, InDrive has Vaya and Hwindi beat. Their service is global and available in 47 countries whereas Vaya is limited to Africa covering 12 countries and Hwindi is local covering only one country. The global nature of InDrive means you use a familiar app in more countries. Yes, they will now also be facing stiff competition from Uber, Bolt, and Lyft however in countries like Zimbabwe where these big names do not have a presence, InDrive will be the go-to.

Another niche feature in favor of InDrive is that it is one of the very few ride-hailing apps available in Huawei’s App Gallery and works on Huawei devices with no Google services. The rest are only available exclusively on iOS or Google play store.

List of features?

On features, Indrive offers ride-hailing and courier services. Just the essentials. Hwindi says it is a super app for ride-hailing, ordering food, deliveries, and grocery shopping however at the moment only deliveries and ride-hailing are what’s working. Vaya has the biggest complement of features including ambulance, cross boarder buses, airplane charter, and safari tours amongst the regular ride-hailing and courier stuff.

That’s pretty much the overview of InDrive. If you are using ride-hailing apps in Zimbabwe, how would you rank them? Let me know in the comments.

Also Read:

• Hwindi app expanding to offer more than just ride-hailing
• Vaya partners with SA company to deliver groceries from across the border