Bolt in London: the story so far

Nearly six months ago we celebrated Bolt‘s launch in London. Now, that half a year has passed, it’s only right to have a look back and see how it’s been.

Here’s a recap.

Six times more drivers

As of September 2019, there were an estimated 87,500 private hire vehicles licensed in London, according to the Department for Transport.

When Bolt launched its services in London at the beginning of this summer, about 5,000 of these heroes successfully signed-up to drive with Bolt. Now, in November, that number has grown six times!

In just six short months we’ve become the second-biggest ride-hailing player in London. Regarding this, here are some cool stats:

• The average ride distance in London is 4.95 miles.
• The number of rides per week has grown six times since we started our operations in London.
• Toyotas are the most popular cars amongst our London drivers, with the Toyota Prius being by far the most popular model.

Epic giveaways

We owe a massive thanks to our awesome London drivers for signing up with us. And, as a way of saying that thank you, we’ve done a series of pretty nice giveaways, including a Mercedes E-Class, brand new iPhones and £10,000 in cash! Also, we’ve kept our word about maintaining fair earnings, even after all of our launch campaigns – Bolt’s commission is still one the lowest on the market, at just 15% — far lower than other ride-hailing apps you might know of.

Not cutting corners on safety

While we’re on this topic, we’re not trying to please the crowd with nice-sounding buzzwords and shameless self-talk. It may sound cheesy, but we actually do care. The health and safety of our riders and drivers is something we invest a lot of time and effort into.

How exactly, you ask? Well, here’s how.

First, there’s a team of trained specialists ready to cater to your every Bolt related need 24/7. If you’re a driver and have a question about your earnings or a rider who needs help locating their lost item, we’ll get back to you in a few hours. Whatever your question is, hit us up via your Bolt app.

Secondly, we’ve integrated an in-app panic button service to protect our drivers and riders from unwanted abuse. The ‘SOS’ service provides an added layer of safety by contacting the police and paramedics immediately when needed.

Making sure that everyone feels content on their ride is our priority number one. There’s no cutting corners on safety!

Here’s to a greener world

Let’s be honest, the level of pollution we have in London is a bit of a bummer. Our streets are some of the most polluted in the world. With Bolt helping people to get around the city on a daily basis, we felt that it was time to do something about it.

In September, we announced our Green Plan. Starting with our commitment of making all of our European rides carbon-neutral, followed up by bringing more electric vehicles to Bolt’s platform and ensuring that we do our very best to make Bolt’s offices greener. Check out our blog post for more details on this. Going greener doesn’t mean that we’ve secretly added some extra £££ to the ride prices. Far from that! With Bolt, on average, passengers save about 5-10% from each trip they take.

It’s safe to say, it’s been a busy half-year! But, let’s be honest, we’re only just getting started! If you feel like you’d like to hop on board and experience this epic this journey with us, all you need to do is download our app and start riding. Or, if you fancy earning a little extra, why not become a Bolt driver yourself? Whether you plan to ride or drive with Bolt, jump in and help us make the next six months even bigger and even better!