The Impact of ICT on Drivers’ Profitability and Efficiency in Abuja’s Transport Industry
Babatunde Samson Ojutalayo
*
Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
John Ojoniko Abbah
Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Victoria Oseyande Ikearu-Udoh
Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Dauda Polzar
Department of Economics Education, Federal University of Education Pankshin, Plateau State, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Transportation is essential for socio-economic development, and ICT innovations like GPS and ride-hailing apps (e.g., Uber and Bolt) have improved mobility by making transport faster, safer, more convenient, and efficient. This study empirically appraised The Impact of ICT on Drivers’ Profitability and Efficiency in Abuja’s Transport Industry. The aim of this study was to appraise how ICT has affected drivers’ earning, security, turnaround time and expenses in Abuja, Nigeria. Traditional taxis and ridesharing economy were looked at and Primary data was collected through the administration of questionnaires. From their record books, we got from Kwali (8), Abaji (2), Gwagwalada (23), Kuje (93), Bwari (144), and AMAC (6481) traditional taxi drivers. Binomial Logit regression was used to regress the data. The model specified profit as dependent variable while price on a fifteen-kilometer distance, weekly earnings, turnaround time, drivers tracking(security), fuel and maintenance are the independent variables. Two separate regressions were ran for ridesharing economy and conventional taxis. The Nagelkerke R-Squared result shows that our pseudo-R squared were both significant. The omnibus test also shows that data perfectly fit the models. The binomial Logit regression findings revealed that ICT has a significant negative impact on the taxi industry as it shares a similar market demand as taxis in Abuja. Second findings was that turnaround time has more impact on profit than price. Security is the third major reason why ridesharing is more profitable than conventional taxis. On the basis of the findings, our recommendation is conventional taxi drivers should embrace ICT i order to improve on security and reduce turnaround time so as to boost their profit margin. Ridesharing economy should also be regulated by the government in-terms of it pricing.
Keywords: Information and communication technology, ridesharing, profitability, taxi industry, taxi drivers, market demand, turnaround time, revenue