₦airaland Forum

Even though I know you know all dis but Let me still drop this here. E long, no vex.

If you don’t agree please let me know, I’ll try and either argue my point or recalculate. Everything here na estimate/average, but I think it’s fairly accurate. If e too long for you, read the TL;DR.

Bolt Driver Economics — The Real Math

TL;DR

You buy fuel at ₦1,300/litre. Bolt charges the passenger ₦2,600. After 25% commission (₦650) and fuel (₦1,300), you have ₦650 left. But your real cost per litre is ₦2,133. You lose ₦183 on every litre you buy. Monthly, you lose ₦73,334 before paying yourself. To earn a fair wage of ₦250,000/month, the fare must be ₦3,677/litre at 25% commission — or ₦3,065/litre if Bolt drops commission to 10%. Currently, you're paying to work while your (averagely) ₦6m car dies.

Part 1: The Setup

Car cost: ₦6,000,000
Fuel price: ₦1,300 per litre
Fuel bought per day: 20 litres
Days worked per month: 20 days
Hours worked per day: 8 hours
Total litres per month: 400 litres
Total hours per month: 160 hours
Part 2: How the Fare Works Per Litre

You buy 1 litre of fuel for ₦1,300
Bolt charges the passenger ₦2,600 (2× your fuel cost)
Bolt takes 25% commission = ₦650
You receive ₦1,950
Minus your fuel = ₦650 left per litre
But your real cost per litre = ₦2,133
So you LOSE ₦183 on every litre you buy
Part 3: Your Monthly Costs

Fuel: ₦520,000
Repairs and maintenance: ₦100,000
Replacement reserve: ₦150,000
Insurance: ₦25,000
Phone and data: ₦20,000
Car wash: ₦20,000
Tolls and parking: ₦5,000
Traffic fines: ₦5,000
Registration: ₦4,167
Health: ₦4,167
Total monthly costs: ₦853,334
Cost per litre: ₦2,133
Part 4: What You Actually Earn Today

Monthly fares: ₦1,040,000
Bolt commission (25%): –₦260,000
You receive: ₦780,000
Minus your costs: –₦853,334
Your result: –₦73,334 (A LOSS)
Per litre: –₦183 (A LOSS)
Per day: –₦3,667 (A LOSS)
Per hour: –₦458 (A LOSS)
Part 5: What Each Wage Level Requires

Break-even: fare ₦2,844/litre at 25% commission
Minimum wage (₦70,000): fare ₦3,077/litre at 25% commission
Living wage (₦150,000): fare ₦3,344/litre at 25% commission
Fair wage (₦250,000): fare ₦3,677/litre at 25% commission
Part 6: Fair Wage Broken Down Per Litre

Fuel: ₦1,300
Other operating costs: ₦833
Fair wage: ₦625
You must receive: ₦2,758 per litre
Fare needed at 25% commission: ₦3,677 per litre
Current fare: ₦2,600 per litre
Gap: ₦1,077 per litre
Part 7: If Bolt Lowers Commission (Fair Wage ₦250,000)

At 25% commission: fare ₦1,471,112/month, Bolt earns ₦367,778
At 20% commission: fare ₦1,379,168/month, Bolt earns ₦275,834
At 15% commission: fare ₦1,298,040/month, Bolt earns ₦194,706
At 10% commission: fare ₦1,225,927/month, Bolt earns ₦122,593
At 5% commission: fare ₦1,161,404/month, Bolt earns ₦58,070
At 0% commission: fare ₦1,103,334/month, Bolt earns ₦0
Part 8: If Fares Stay the Same (₦1,040,000/month)

At 25% commission: you get ₦780,000 — after costs you get –₦73,334
At 20% commission: you get ₦832,000 — after costs you get –₦21,334
At 15% commission: you get ₦884,000 — after costs you get ₦30,666
At 10% commission: you get ₦936,000 — after costs you get ₦82,666
At 5% commission: you get ₦988,000 — after costs you get ₦134,666
At 0% commission: you get ₦1,040,000 — after costs you get ₦186,666
Even at 0% commission, you still earn less than ₦250,000 fair wage
Part 9: What Is NOT Included

Downtime (car in workshop = ₦0 earned)
Accident repairs
Theft or robbery
Illness
Any profit beyond your wage
Adding these makes the real numbers worse
Part 10: The Last 10 — The Whole Essence

You lose ₦183 on every litre of fuel you buy.
You lose ₦73,334 every month before paying yourself.
To earn a fair wage of ₦250,000/month, fare must be ₦3,677/litre at 25% commission.
If Bolt drops commission to 10%, fare only needs to be ₦3,065/litre.
At current fares, even 0% commission leaves you ₦63,334 short of a fair wage.
Bolt still earns ₦122,593/month per driver at 10% commission and ₦250,000 wage.
Recommended: 10% commission, 18% fare increase, ₦250,000 monthly wage.
Downtime, accidents, theft, and illness are excluded — reality is worse.
Current model is not a business — it is a transfer of your car, time, and money to the platform.
You are not earning — you are paying to work while your ₦6,000,000 car dies.

It’s always so good to come back here and see drivers thriving and doing so well. No need to make any moves to better our lot, we should just keep adjusting. Bolt must be very pleased.

Kumuyiii:
If you dresss exceptionally well, you can use hotels.... I mean big ones, they tend to have toilets people can use.... But you gas be mad dressed and walk like you own a room there 😔🙏, basically package sir.

Mad dressed bawo. Na dress mad. Me wey I dey go meet reception say wey deir restroom in my short knicker. Just be polite.

DoTheNeedful:
I predicted this weeks ago that the Wike wing of PDP will present an unknown presidential candidate.

Congratulationssssss!

obinna58:
But We’re living in demonic society

And this, ladies and gentlemen is how Nigerians think!

brain54:
The way you dey on this thread dey rant I no go surprise if you dey do such dastardly acts for real life...

Cheap, doesn’t even make sense. Just go change your name to Pinky.

The mindset of the ordinary Nigerian is finished. School or no school e no be like any of us dey educated o. See wetin people dey talk for this thread

obinna58:
Hookup gone wrong, the sex ministry section should do something about this

Hookup how? God forbid e happen to your sister.

Honestey:
Election period is usually scary even before the establishment of School of Repentant Bohoharam.

Na your type dey believe say women dey fly. You go fit stone women for Salem dat year unto witch.

edogu:
The dangerous or disadvantage aspect of hookupism but then her death could be due to other reasons. Whichever one, it doesn't warrant her murder.

Your sense no dey this thread, you for just find an go under your shoe. Which one be hookup now, jut because the girl fine and she obviously dey out of your league, you come dey speak unproven I’ll of the dead.

We4all:
Nigerian men are becoming too dangerous. The way they sniff life out of people is becoming alarming. The mere thoughts that these people committing these crimes are even on this forum makes me shudder.

Nigerian ignorant people are even more dangerous. It is worrisome that your type is the stock they draw a jury of peers from.

Sonnobax15:

The high.rate at which people seem to worship money these days in this country is the root of all these evils .

May the dimwits who murdered her be found and may they share the same fate with this beautiful soul which they had cut short

This one just dey find where to spew thrash. Did you see any mention or even insinuation of money in the thread. How dare you use such a sad event to voice your ignorant biases. Don’t you think the family may be reading this, that NL is faceless doesn’t mean you must also be brainless.

Somebody here asked me to send him an email, I can’t remember who. I’m just here wondering why the request for me to send him an email out of the blue on an unrelated topic that did not warrant any sending email. Especially as the person didn’t respond to the email after I sent it and even came back to notify him that I had sent it. He gave me an obviously alias email that was not his name and I’m hoping he was not expecting me to send him an email with my own legit email that carries my name. Lol. I just remembered cos people like measuring Dik sizes around here (especially the ones that have multiple accounts) and it just made me chuckle.

Pearl1910:
But if u admit that raising fares will cause reduced trip demand, what and how should the ehailing coys operate without harming drivers, baring the harsh economic situation which u are saying we shouldn't blame d govt for

Increase marketing spend, they already know this.

Nelochukwu:
Alot is politics cause before removal of subsidy announcement on inauguration day ehailing was still bearable. Since den na increment upon increment. Subsidy money sef we no see .

While the corporate bodies are greedy economic policies are to blame also

Of course the economy is worse, but it was not government policy that started the war in Iran which is what has spoilt the trade for everyone here. Look, the guys at Bolt have indices they operate by, that is how Estonia determines how well the business is doing and if the country manager is hitting his targets the main one of which is number of rides on the platform. He knows that if he increases the rate that number will drop. So he has decided his best course of action is to play kalo kalo with the lives of not just the drivers on his platform but also their families’. Let us call a spade a spade, this is not a political forum, we are all business people here. The platforms are the one to blame for the pricing on the platforms. I get that you may not be happy with the government, I’m not happy either.

Let’s not ascribe to politics what should be ascribed to corporate greed. Otherwise one person go slap you, you go go beat another person.

Eazilyfe:
When and where dem talk say dem increase price?

Something wey dem dey shout since. And for real they actually reduced it, cos I took my time to measure it today.

Why bolt dey lie say dem increase price when what they did was reduce it?

What’s up with drivers trying to be better than other drivers in the most non constructive ways possible? Don’t we have better things to do?

Jegheter:
Guys pls this is an original story. Just like 5mins ago. I was in Front of my crib. Just chilling drinking a cool bottle of trophy having just returned from work and trying to check out trips for this night. Na so i hear lady wey dey waka come my direction dey make call I dey hear guy voice but no dey make out wetin em dey talk.

Omo as d girl dey walk come i just hear am say "but u r a 2 mins man naaw, ******* no allow god punish u ooo" I didn't hear d other parts but d way d guy voice went numb on d phone like Dem reduce television volume .

D funny part d way d vibes dey read baba dey spend better money on d girl.

Mehn guys no kill urself ooo. The hole can't never be filled

As na original story, na to turn am to book.

Kumuyiii:
Gregorymichael65@gmail.com email me

Done

Guys please what are you doing to adjust in these dangerous times. I only just started not using AC for Bolt riders, unless Comfort before I on AC. Is anyone renegotiating prices? Because as it is I don tire, my car don spoil I come dey find money to repair am like say no be money wey I make from bolt I suppose use.

Guys have you seen the new promos on the app? It’s clear to me that they have applied to either regional EMEA or Global headquarters and they did not get approval to increase prices. The only approval they got was incentives.

Which means they don’t rate us enough to have the decency to increase prices, only incentives that are conditioned on us driving more.

Imagine that!

Guys let’s tell ourselves the truth. Bolt percentage is currently 50%.

Pearl1910:
Half bread is better than puffpuff

Live!

Pearl1910:
Did u report this under the trip in question and under "Rider didn't pay or paid less" ?

Cos like they are saying u didn't follow d proper channels.

Also when u are complaining u have to say what really happened and also make it convincing that they refused to pay cos they will ask the Rider to.
What u typed here is not remotely related to what u said happened

There were two cases. That’s why my narrative sounds unrelated. They’ve offered me 50% compensation. I insisted on 100% but they said policy.

ksmart027:
Na you close the case. Report the ride again and this time after their AI message the will ask if you still need help choose yes. Keep repeating the same message until the connect you to an agent.

Remember to add small stew to the story.

Na dem close am. Can I raise 2 such requests for non payment for 2 separate incidents?

Please guys, help a brother out. How do I report a rider to Bolt for refusing to pay me please. I have 2 such cases now

Pearl1910:
Not possible.
Wetin u tell them?

I don research d woman find her picture. Next tin na to go post an for social media if bolt no pay me.

Pearl1910:
Not possible.
Wetin u tell them?

Na even one kind AI answer me

Pearl1910:
Some people are just wicked and need force to act, cos she has clearly seen the price on her end, it's not as if u want to cheat her. And she has the money.
But no go fight or cause a seen cos Bolt always says we should not be violent. If she no pay as u don tell am, Bolt will pay u and find a way to collect it back from her. Na them get system na. Na dem hold yam and knife.

I reported to Bolt dem no even answer. Talk less of paying me.