Viability and Economic Contribution of Shared Ride Taxis: A Case Study of Francistown Metropolis

Abstract

The scope of the study was to ascertain the viability of the cruise taxi business in Francistown metropolis. The business is dominated by black entrepreneurs supported by local authority to ply the metropolitan routes. A semi-structured questionnaire was introduced and issued to commuters who were randomly selected on their way to pick a taxi at their terminus. Collected data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 26. A Cruise taxi driver’s level of education influenced time taken to pick and drop off passengers, commuting market choice and Saturday income (P<0.05). Passengers were found to be satisfied and willingly preferred using cruise ride taxis. Day of the week significantly influenced various parameters including breakdown expenditure, number of vacant seats and ranking time (P<0.05) with a toll on viability. The cruise ride business was inferred to be viable and efficient considering they earned more than other sectors of the economy and they sat on the average income earned across all sectors. The cruise taxis in the metropolis generated revenue of BWP 48 million per year. It is recommended the cruise taxi business embrace evolving technologies like e-hailing systems to enhance viability. This will enable real time data collection to analyse their business as well as comparing it at global level.