For generations, the taxi industry has been male-dominated. Men were behind the wheel both literally and figuratively. The majority of taxi business owners were men, and almost every driver in every country was also a man.
With the appearance of ride-hailing, the situation has changed: more and more women have discovered that driving is a job that allows them to make a living and support their families.
The industry isn’t as closed anymore and allows anyone to install an app and apply, so the number of female drivers keeps growing.
Being a female driver comes with several challenges: it is often dangerous to drive at night, and the driver needs to be mindful of unsafe areas. Cases of attacks and harassment of female drivers have led to women drivers choosing to avoid night shifts and to drive in only specific locations. This means they often make less profit from driving than their male colleagues.
At the same time, women have always been active taxi riders. With complicated daily schedules that often include having a job, performing domestic chores, and taking care of children, women use taxi services and ride-hailing services to the fullest, and this isn’t always a smooth ride. Stories of harassment, intimidation, and discomfort during taxi rides have been all too common. Feedback forms, reports, and social media keep exposing safety issues that women face while regularly finding themselves in a closed space with a stranger.
When women-for-women taxis arrived, they gave women a chance to avoid all these issues. The concept of women-for-women taxis is simple yet profound: these services are exclusively operated by women, for women. This ensures a safe, comfortable, and reliable means of transportation for the driver and the customer.
In this article, we’ll explore successful cases of women-for-women ride-hailing services and the multiple lessons we can learn from these stories.
HerRyde: a Nigerian ride-hailing startup built for women
The founders of HerRyde had two goals: to solve the problems of safety and discrimination of women in the ride-hailing industry and to secure their niche in the ride-hailing market. They’ve achieved both, attracting media attention, including World Economic Forum and Reuters, and gaining popularity among female drivers and customers.
HerRyde was launched in August 2022 in Nigeria’s capital city Abuja. The founders came up with the idea based on what they heard from their female siblings. Founders discovered through their siblings how scary and uncomfortable it can be to ride a taxi with a male driver.
While being a successful ride-hailing company, HerRyde strives to change the narrative in the community, make riding in taxis safer for women, and involve more women in driving. It’s an inclusive community where founders and drivers support each other and work together to achieve greater good.
Lesson learned:
The story of HerRyde shows, among other things, how not involving women in the taxi industry hurts the industry: if not for the founders’ female siblings , they would never know which issues women experience and how to solve these issues.
We can also see how driving societal change can be a profitable thing to do: by creating women-for-women taxis and working hard to attract female drivers, HerRyde earned media attention, reputation, and popularity, which means more and more customers. They also found their niche and made it seem easy to stand out from the ride-hailing crowd.
You can read the full HerRyde case study here.
PinkTaxi: women-only service in Egypt
Reem Fawzi is a woman entrepreneur who founded PinkTaxi in 2015 in Cairo. Cairo already had several strong ride-hailing companies, however, it was easy for PinkTaxi to find its niche and earn its clients.
PinkTaxi arrived as a solution for two problems. The first problem, as you would expect, was female safety — or, rather, lack thereof. The second problem was that taking a ride with a traditional taxi in Egypt required bargaining, knowing the route, and being constantly on guard. This was an impossible task for female tourists — and there are many female tourists in Cairo.
The company became the go-to service for tourists. PinkTaxi targeted traveling outlets such as TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet to get represented, used social media to build their reputation as a safe and fitting method of transportation for local women and Western female tourists, and fostered active communities on Facebook and Instagram.
One of the challenges the company faced was finding female drivers. So, the company trained female drivers in-house. An essential part of this training was gaining assertiveness, as female cab drivers often get harassed or made fun of by male drivers. New female taxi drivers could always count on getting all the support they need with mastering the driving, the booking apps, and getting assistance in any critical situation.
Lesson learned:
Often, it’s easier to attract a specific target audience than to reach everyone at the same time. Find your niche and use marketing strategies to get their attention.
Another lesson is that attracting drivers is often harder than attracting customers. Consider the issues your drivers might face and how you can help them deal with those issues.
You can read the full PinkTaxi case study here.
OFemale: OTaxi’s women-for-women service
OTaxi, a ride-hailing company in Oman, launched OFemale in March 2022. As its Marketing Director Sheikha Ambu-Ali told Onde, the demand for OFemale service was overwhelming already from the start.
The idea for OFemale came from the customers themselves — all OTaxi founders had to do was listen closely to the feedback of their female customers and follow through with the solution. Since its launch, the service has kept growing, and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping.
The biggest challenge for OFemale was attracting female drivers. There were personal, societal, and cultural issues stopping women from applying for a taxi driver job. To solve this problem, OFemale managers and marketers decided to promote the female drivers they already had. OFemale marketers would publish interviews with drivers, show their photos, and post on Instagram and Snapchat. They had real women talk about their real experiences.
Besides that, the company asked experienced female drivers to become mentors for new drivers and fostered a community where drivers supported each other. This all worked miraculously: according to Sheikha Ambu-Ali, when the service just started, 1 out of 100 females registered would want to find out more information about the car or the documents, and maybe two would stay to work. Today, almost 20 out of 100 would end up working for OFemale.
Lesson learned:
People are better convinced by example than by promises. Using real people in your marketing will help you attract both drivers and customers. At the same time, fostering a community and introducing mentorship is key to customer and driver loyalty.
You can read the full interview with Sheikha Ambu-Ali here.
The rise of women-for-women taxis represents a powerful shift towards inclusivity and safety in the transportation industry. However, there is also a lot that ride-hailing companies can learn from the success of women-for-women taxis case studies. Mainly, the importance of diversity, finding your own niche, implementing smart marketing strategies, and building a community.
