uGoMyWay, a South African developed and maintained carpooling app that is tackling the traffic congestion, has released the results of its pilot ‘corporate carpooling project’.
The app, launched in June in Cape Town, aims to remove excess cars from the roads.
Conducted in association with Accelerate Cape Town, over a period of two and a half months, the pilot included eight of the Mother City’s top-tier corporate companies and their employees, and confirms the viability of a sustained ride-share/carpooling programme for Africa’s most traffic congested city – and beyond.
During the period of the pilot, downloads of the app increased by 120% with 89% of users finding a match. Over 90% of these matches are classified as ‘excellent’, where deviation from the original journey is under 2.5km or five minutes and 50% of users had more than one match.
Chris Megan, CEO of uGoMyWay is delighted with the results saying: “The tech works! We were not expecting such an exceptional match outcome at this stage. This is an excellent sign that there is indeed a healthy appetite for carpooling and it bodes well for the future of carpooling as a viable means of transportation to and from work and other frequent car trips.”
uGoMyWay uses two factors to rank and gauge the quality of a match. The two-factor algorithm recognises the financial benefit of maximising the shared journey while minimising inconvenience or deviation from the original journey.
Here are some journey stats from the pilot:
- The longest journey was 61.2km
- The shortest journey was 5.4km
- The average journey was 20.1km
- The distribution was “normal” with 50% clustered between 15km and 25km.
2017 Step up 2 A Start-up Youth Entrepreneurship Programme Launched
The Gauteng premier, David Makhura, Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu and international author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, launched the fourth Step up 2 a Start-up, following the success of the previous youth entrepreneurship programmes.
The programme is aimed at learners in grades 9 – 11 and this year’s theme, ‘Seeking Opportunity, Connecting People and Creating Sustainable Value’, will focus on social entrepreneurship. Standard Bank is the key sponsor of the programme.
“Sustainable economic development is only possible through small business development and new venture creation, and not enough young people are entering the entrepreneurial space which will be the lifeblood of job creation moving forward,” said Martin Sweet of Primestars Marketing, another sponsor of the programme.
“Instilling a culture and mind-set of entrepreneurship and wealth creation in the youth is crucial to the future development of South Africa’s economy, but too little is being done to nurture entrepreneurship from a young age.”
“We live in exciting times. The world is changing rapidly, with technology leading this change. However, for some the pace is too fast, too much and they risk missing such opportunities. For others, the brave and innovative, the pace provides an endless wave upon which to ride, a plethora of new ventures and business opportunities to explore, with no boundaries. While all of this is going on around the world, South Africa runs the risk of being left behind.
“For our youth to realise their potential, they need to be exposed to the endless possibilities available to them as entrepreneurs and we need to provide them with the necessary skills and tools to succeed.”
“Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss to improve systems, invent new approaches and create solutions to change society for the better.”
