Nurses and doctors at hospitals throughout Zimbabwe are set to get free transport for 30 days as Vaya once again rolls out exciting new services. These are a car-sharing service called Vaya Carpool and a minibus service called Vaya Shuttle.
Both
services will be launched on the 15th of August.
The
Vaya Carpool will be open to all members of the public and allows people to
share a car and cut costs. Vaya already has over 16 000 registered cars on its
digital On Demand service. A computer programme is able to do the scheduling
automatically as well as plan the routes.
Vaya Shuttle is an On-Demand Service that uses minibuses instead of cars.
Vaya has been testing what it calls Vaya Corporate Shuttle in which companies and organisations can order minibuses to take their staff to and from home. Econet already uses the service for its own employees and even has a separate service for taking their children to and from school — all for free. It has been going for several months.
Vaya
Corporate Shuttle is aimed at companies and organisations who want to help
their employees with transport.
“As
long as you have at least 10 employees going to an area, you will be able to
schedule their pick up using the Vaya Corporate Shuttle,” said Dorothy Zimuto,
who heads up the Vaya business unit within Cassava Smartech Group, the listed
entity that spun out of Econet.
Explaining
the decision to give healthcare workers the free service for 30 days, Mrs Zimuto
said: “We know how hard it is out there and we wanted to find a way to show our
own appreciation to people who save lives every single day.”
Cassava
will pay the drivers for the collections during the 30 days, she said.
All
the workers at registered hospitals and clinics will be able to use the
service, not just nurses and doctors.
The
way it will work is that a hospital or Clinic must apply to use the service and
then register each employee who will then be issued with a “Digital Pass” for
use on the minibus. Every person who is registered must also download the Vaya
App and key in their Digital Pass.
Whilst
nurses and other hospital workers will be using minibuses on Vaya Shuttle,
doctors and other senior administrators will be able to share a car under
another service that will be launched at the same time called Vaya
Carpool.
“You
can have up to three doctors travel with Vaya Carpool. It will also be free a
month,” said Mrs Zimuto.
Vaya
is hoping that businesses in Zimbabwe will use Vaya Carpool and Shuttle to move
their executives to and from work and save fuel for the whole country. Private
cars can stay at home for use at weekends.
Mrs
Zimuto said fuel demand can be cut by as much as 50% if we all use Vaya Carpool
and Shuttle for getting to work and schools.
“Econet
employees all use the services and it has been remarkable. Our people get to
work on time, their kids and spouses also access the service, and we do it all
for free right now,” she said.
Mrs
Zimuto said many companies have already lined up to use both the Vaya Carpool
and Vaya Corporate Shuttle services when they are launched.
“We
are expecting massive uptake because companies want to help their workers,” she
said, adding that registrations were already in full swing.
Several
hospitals are part of the free trial, but after the 15th of August, Vaya is
planning to deploy hundreds of minibuses and thousands of cars for the free 30-day
period.
Meanwhile
Mrs Zimuto confirmed that the Vaya School Shuttle that has been on trial with
Econet Group employees is set to open to the full public next term.
Using
the Vaya App schools and parents can schedule pickups for children and teachers
from homes to schools. Parents and teachers can follow the trip using their
phones, just like a normal Vaya ride vehicle.
