The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), in collaboration with the Vice President’s Office, has launched Tap and Go, a digital taxi service for Ghanaian taxi drivers, in Accra.

The Tap and Go software, which functions similarly to existing taxi applications like Uber, Yango, Bolt, and others, is now being tested in Accra (Airport, East Legon, University of Ghana, Circle/Kaneshie region, and Dansoman) before being rolled out statewide next year.

Speaking at the app’s launch in Accra on Thursday, December 14, the GPRTU’s National Chairman, Nana Nimako Bresiamah, said the app is the result of a collaboration between the GPRTU and the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who he said listened to their concerns about losing business to online foreign taxi services.

“The taxi driving business, as we all know, has been taken online by many foreign companies, and for our members who were still operating the old way, we were gradually getting out of business and the launch of this app, through the support and efforts of Vice President Bawumia, is a timely intervention to save our business,” the national chairman of the GPRTU said.

He added that, in response to the harmful impacts of various foreign taxi applications on the operations of Ghanaian taxi drivers, the GPRTU met with Dr Bawumia to convey their concerns, and the Vice President guaranteed them a remedy, which he said was fulfilled.

On behalf of the GPRTU, the Chairman extended heartfelt thanks to Dr. Bawumia for his concern and involvement.

“We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for his concern when we met him, as well as for intervening on our behalf through this app to help our business.” This is truly ours. Other applications are controlled by foreign interests, but this one is authentically Ghanaian.

“I strongly advise drivers and GPRTU members not to abuse the app to extort Ghanaians.” We wish to run this app efficiently and professionally to provide excellent service to Ghanaians while maintaining the GPRTU’s integrity,” he intimated.

Many cab drivers who spoke at the event expressed their happiness and thanked Vice President Bawumia for assisting them in saving their crumbling company.

“I want to thank Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for this great initiative,” said John Kofi Tawiah, a taxi driver in Kaneshie. The fact is that we were losing work as a result of the numerous applications. We now have our own app, which will benefit us because we won’t be driving around wasting gasoline looking for passengers.”

“We want to thank Dr Bawumia for getting our taxi business online,” said George Nii Ayi Tagoe, a taxi driver at the University of Ghana’s Legon Campus. This would be extremely beneficial to us on the Legon campus since we were losing business to online taxi applications. The competition will be more beneficial now.”

Samuel Amoah, the GPRTU’s Deputy PRO, expressed gratitude to both the GPRTU’s leadership and the Vice President for listening to their issues and assisting them.

“This is a very good app, and we want to thank the GPRTU leadership for taking the initiative to discuss our plight with Vice President Bawumia.” “We also thank Dr Bawumia for his assistance with the Tap and Go app,” stated the Deputy PRO.

“We park at the stations for hours without patronage, and when they roam around in town, they waste fuel,” he continued, citing international taxi businesses on the internet. This would be extremely beneficial to us, and we thank Vice President Bawumia for his assistance.”

In addition to the usual online service app, the Tap and Go taxi app is uniquely designed with added features to meet various aspects of Ghanaian taxi service, such as ‘private dropping’ (private cars operating as taxis) and metered service’ (where a passenger instantly stops a taxi in the middle of the road and a metre is turned on to determine the charge).

Tap and Go has two apps: Tap and Go for passengers and Tap n Go Driver for prospective taxi drivers.

Both applications are available for download from the Google Play Store for Android phones and the Apple Store for iPhone users.

The Ghana Card, which ensures that all drivers in the database can be traced, is one of the conditions for registration for interested taxi drivers.

Other GPRTU officers present at the event were General Secretary Godfred Abulbire, National Vice Chairman Emmanuel Nii Ankrah, National First Trustee Jacob Odae, and Greater Accra Regional Vice Chairman Seth Tetteh.