Bolt customers in Kenya prefer shorter trips

Bolt customers in Kenya prefer shorter trips that are less than 10km with more than 5 million rides taken over short distances. This is according to the firm’s 2022 end-of-year data insights released last week. 

The data also revealed that most rides were taken in the morning, across major cities in Kenya. During this popular hour, customers in Nairobi took more than 1 million rides to various destinations.

One key highlight of the data is that a customer took over 8,000 km of rides on the platform in 2022, setting a new record compared to the previous year. 

Chicken was the most ordered item on the Bolt Food platform, with customers requesting the dish over 30,000 times throughout the year. While chicken was the most popular choice, followed by pizza, burgers, and alcohol, there was also an increase in the number of Kenyans trying Indian and Eastern European cuisines.

In 2022, Bolt celebrated its ninth anniversary globally and announced that the business had quadrupled in size since the start of the pandemic. Since its launch in Kenya in 2017, the company has experienced exponential growth, covering over 900 million km and serving over 4 million customers across cities and urban centres in Kenya. Currently, Bolt operates in multiple areas, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kakamega, Nakuru, Naivasha, Eldoret, Kitale, Nyeri, Meru, and Nanyuki. Through its food delivery platform, Bolt currently has a growing food delivery network of over 80 estates within Nairobi and its metropolitan area, and over 1,250 top restaurants where customers can conveniently order their favourite food through the app.

The company boasts over 50,000 drivers and couriers noting that in 2022 it focused on improving its drivers’ earnings per hour by increasing demand, reducing the inconvenience or cost for drivers to offer services on the platform, and increasing their earnings. In addition to the 3% fare tariff increase announced in May 2021, Bolt also revised its fare tariffs upwards in March 2022 by approximately 4% for the Lite category to mitigate the adverse effects of rising fuel costs on its drivers.

Commenting on the year-end statistics, Bolt Country Manager Linda Ndungu said she was delighted with the business’s progress despite the difficulties of 2022. “Bolt has continued to achieve significant growth in the market in 2022 and has also made great strides in meeting the needs of all our key stakeholders, including customers, driver partners, and the government and industry regulators. We remain committed to offering safe, quality, and convenient services at affordable rates while strengthening our presence across the country. We look forward to an even better 2023.”

In 2022, Bolt also launched its regional hub in Nairobi. It serves as the regional nerve centre for the company’s operations in Africa across seven countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Tunisia. The hub’s launch is part of the company’s ongoing growth and investment strategy in the region as it seeks to deepen its presence in Africa in a unified approach.

Bolt also received its Transport Network Company licence, effective 28th October 2022, following the business fully complying with the stipulated licensing requirements per the industry regulator, National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA). This also resulted in Bolt capping its commission rate at 18% as per the stipulated Regulations.

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