I was pleased to hand awards to the 40 top achieving Blue Dot taxi drivers during a special ceremony in Century City today.

Just over a year ago, the Western Cape Government partnered with the provincial minibus taxi industry to roll out the groundbreaking Blue Dot taxi pilot project, an incentive programme to reward improved driving behaviour and good passenger service quality, and in a  strong, positive effort to turn around instances of illegal operations and conflict. 

The Western Cape Cabinet endorsed the pilot project in September 2020, which saw the participation of approximately 800 minibus taxis distributed across the regions of the Western Cape.

The project responds to the urgent need to improve public transport in the Western Cape, and driver behaviour amongst taxis, considering the major challenges experienced by the passenger rail system, increasing congestion, and other challenges.

The minibus taxi industry plays a critical role in the economy of the Western Cape and in the lives of our citizens, transporting 2 million passengers daily and accounting for 75% of all public transport trips.

The Blue Dot pilot has been a remarkable success:

• We have formed 8 new regional companies;
• We have branded 880 vehicles, fitted them with a tracker and checked for safety – allowing us to monitor 3 million km of operations monthly across 150 routes;
• Over 500 operators and 900 drivers have met the eligibility requirements to participate.

After a concerted effort, we are seeing encouraging evidence of positive behaviour change. The average number of speeding events by participating taxis has declined by 50%. This shows that Blue Dot is working.  

For the first time in South Africa, through the Blue Dot pilot, minibus taxi passengers and other road users have been empowered to rate the quality of the service via cell phone.  We’ve received over 27 000 ratings to date and on a scale of very good to very bad, passengers rate Blue Dot as good.

While Umanyano Travel Services, the 8 regional companies and the 500 taxi owners participating in Blue Dot all play a critical role, it is the drivers who are at the heart of the project and the key to its success. 

Drivers are at the coalface, transporting millions of passengers to their destinations every day. 

Blue Dot cannot work without the full participation and support of the drivers.  It is at the driver level where service quality and customer experience are determined.

The awards were calculated based on two key aspects of the Blue Dot programme: driving behaviour and user feedback. Drivers were scored based on how well they drove, and how highly their users rated them. Based on these combined scores, drivers were then sorted into five categories of awards.

The driver with the best score per Region was awarded the Top Driver award, and the remaining drivers were then sorted into the categories of Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze, based on their score. 

The taxi drivers acknowledged today serve as an excellent example of customer service and service delivery and contribute to safer taxis, safer roads and safer lives. 

The top performers per region are:

• Collin Jansen – Boland Region
• Walter Constable – Northern Region
• Bongani Debese – CATA Region
• Pieter Less – Greater Cape Town Region
• Aldrin Appels – Two Oceans Region
• Chulekazi Maweyi – Codeta Region
• ID Valla – Eden Region

Picture 1: Mobility Minister, Daylin Mitchell, HOD Jacqui Gooch and Chulekazi Maweyi.

Picture 2: Mobility Minister Daylin Mitchell, Transport and Public Works Standing Committee Chair, Ricardo Mckenzie, HOD Jacqui Gooch, Chief Director Deidre Ribbonaar,  Santaco Chair, Mandla Hermanus and the top performers.

Media Queries:           

Ntomboxolo Makoba-Somdaka

Spokesperson for Minister Daylin Mitchell

Cell: 082 953 0026

Email: Ntomboxolo.Makoba-Somdaka@westerncape.gov.za