Feb 23, 2023

Moove drivers in Nigeria are protesting against “slavery, extortion and unbearable working conditions” Total Drivers registered under the vehicle-financing company, Moove Africa , are currently embarking on a strike. The strike, which was covered by Technext on its third day, was the drivers’ way of protesting against several injustices and inhumanity allegedly meted to them by the company. One of these injustices, according to the drivers, includes the sudden hike of the payment for their hire-purchase vehicles from N8 million to a whopping N12 million. (A quick check of the Suzuki S-Presso and Alto vehicles that Moove gives to its drivers shows they cost between N2.5 million to N4.1 million.) According to the protesters, even when a driver is issued a repossessed vehicle (which could be considered a used/tokunbo vehicle) they are still expected to pay the full 12 million capital. This is despite the fact that its previous user likely has paid a part of the cost or possibly left some damages. Also, the drivers are protesting the sudden hike in their daily remittance from 35% of gross income to a total of N14,400/day. According to them, this is roughly 80% of the daily average N18,000 income of the drivers. This is aside from personal expenses like fueling the car and data purchases. This amounts to a total of N66,000 per week. For emphasis, the regular Uber and Bolt driver who has an arrangement with private car owners remits an average of N25,000-N30,000 per week. Speaking on the purpose of their strike action, the president of the Moove Africa driver’s group, Fortune Chima, said that the protest has been ongoing on a low scale since October 2022. He claimed that the remittance which the company demands of the drivers is too much. He also shared his colleagues’ complaints about their working hours. “We are required to be online for 12 hours. In that 12 hours, you could make N18,000. Out of that N18,000 you will have to pay 9,400 to Moove and N5,000 to Uber. If you fuel your car for N4000 and buy a calling card, how much is left? Some of us even have to borrow money from loan apps just to settle our remittances. It is slavery,” he said. Moove is one of the earliest e-hailing-focused vehicle-financing companies to make its entry into Nigeria. Launched in 2019, the company didn’t resume operations until 2020, around the same time the Lagos state government was introducing its regulation of the space. That regulation demanded that only new cars, not more than 3 years old, be used for e-hailing. A lineup of Moove vehicles With the majority of drivers unable to afford their own cars, there was automatically a space for vehicle financiers like Moove and Lag Ride to play in. Moove collaborated with Uber to play effectively in this space, a move that has proven to be a big limitation to the drivers. The drivers claim that they are unable to work across other platforms like Bolt which is the largest e-hailing service provider, or InDriver. This severely limits their ability to make money. There are roughly about 3,000 Moove drivers in Lagos and these drivers believe they are getting the short end of the deal on the Uber app. This is because UberGo is the version of the app which Moove drivers are on as against the general Uber X. And, according to the drivers, UberGo fares are far lesser than those of Uber X. Unbearable working conditions According to Mr Jaiyesimi Azeez, the Lagos State Chairman of the Professional e-hailing Drivers and Private Owners Association (PEDPOA), the drivers are protesting against unbearable working conditions that are against labour laws. “Labour law says we shouldn’t work more than 8 hours a day. But here we work up to 24 hours. Most of us don’t go home. We sleep in our vehicles to meet up with the high remittance. We are saying, we can no longer bear this,” he said. The drivers also accuse the company of charging them a weekly maintenance fee, handling costs and health insurance even though it never gave them access to an HMO service. In my interaction with the protesting drivers, they told me that even when a driver is sick and bedridden, they are still required to make the N9400 daily remittances. According to them, even in such instances, defaulting drivers would be disabled, their cars repossessed, and their total deposits to date forfeited. This, the drivers say, has forced them to spend more hours than is normal working. They also accused the company of recycling drivers for its vehicles. Some of the drivers also claimed that the company is always quick to demobilize and repossess vehicles for the flimsiest of reasons, thus terminating the driver’s contract and making him forfeit his vehicle. Once the vehicle is repossessed, they claimed, the company will quickly hand it over to another driver, although the vehicles are supposed to be given on a hire-purchase arrangement. The drivers’ demands The drivers are demanding that Moove Africa reduces driver remittance to N5000 per day. They also want the company to acknowledge the presence of a union. They want it to scrap health insurance as well as re-incorporate the 3 months’ leave that they were promised. They said if their demands aren’t met, they would be forced to park the vehicles and demand that the company reimburses them 50% of their deposits so far. Following the protest, some of the drivers informed this Technext that Moove has invited their representatives for a conversation. Moove responds When this reporter reached out to Moove for its responses in the face of these accusations, the vehicle financing company, through its PR handlers explained that the company and its drivers have been victims of the fuel and economic reality of the country. “In recent months, Nigeria has faced a series of unprecedented economic challenges, including the worst fuel scarcity in decades, a shortage of physical cash, and all-time high inflation, along with crushing foreign exchange rates. Each of these factors is having a negative impact on the livelihoods of all citizens.” – Response by the Moove comms team Hence, the pains the drivers are feeling aren’t induced exclusively by their policies. “All mobility entrepreneurs across Nigeria, including our very own Moove customers who earn their living operating vehicles that we have empowered them with, are even more adversely affected due to the number of working hours spent queuing for fuel rather than being on the road and earning money”, the statement adds. The Moove Suzuki S-Presso and Alto vehicles in an unveiling event… The company restated its commitment to formalising the mobility economy by providing a means for mobility entrepreneurs to earn a sustainable source of income. It claimed that customer satisfaction is at the core of its business. “Our customers are at the heart of our business — we can’t succeed without them — and we come into work at Moove every day focused on how to make their experience better, on and off the road, whether it’s more consistent savings from our fuel subsidies, freedom with our 4-week annual remittance holidays, stronger insurance protections or reduced barriers to earning an income from our no upfront deposits, we’ll continue to  work hard to improve the experience for our customers”, the company explains. Technext Newsletter