It was a bit of a surprise for me, to have the cab driver call me thirty minutes before scheduled pickup time. He had called to tell me that he was in my street already. I asked him to park somewhere closer to my house, while I hurriedly put my belongings together for transportation.
Now, I've had more than my own fair share of services and goods accessed through an online interface. However, never before had I considered booking a cab online. Reason is, I strongly believed that online cab booking would always prove more expensive than going the traditional way of flagging one down. A download of Uber and a couple of experiments had helped cement this opinion.
I had come across Kabukabu in the most serendipitous way just last week; I wasn't looking and couldn't even guess that I'd be needing the service a few days down the line. The idea had caught my attention, because it's one I had pondered on several times before. The simplest way to describe the service would be: "help people share a cab, so the fare is cheaper for everyone". So, you can call it a cab sharing service. On another note, it also allows interested car owners, who won't mind sharing a ride to offer a ride to pedestrians traveling in their route.
I'd suggest that they make rider (taxi driver or car owner) registration available over the web, as currently, the only way to do that is by placing a call to the company.
My entire experience using Kabukabu Nigeria in Lagos, just last Tuesday was nothing short of amazing. I'd admit, part of the reason is that I was skeptical of the service and not really expecting it to work.
Kabukabu was awesome on the following notes:
+ The feedback time, after I filled the route form was short (within an hour).
+ The lady, who called to confirm my booking was courteous and helpful.
+ The fare was alarmingly cheap: 2500 naira from Yaba to Iyana Ipaja (and I was the only passenger). Hailing a cab traditionally for this trip would have cost me no less than 4000 naira, considering the amount of luggage I was carrying along.
+ The taxi driver besides arriving well ahead of time, was very friendly and helpful. He helped to load and offload my luggage into and from the vehicle respectively.
+ The cab was air conditioned, and in huge contrast with the traditional yellow taxi, smelled nice.
Need I say more? The taxi service provided by Kabukabu is indeed one to try. I only pray that as their popularity and demand increases, that they are able to maintain the service at this current or even a higher standard.
Kudos, Kabukabu Nigeria. Try them out at www.Kabukabu.com.ng to save some good bucks on your next taxi ride.
