Submitted
2022 Solv[ED] Youth Innovation Challenge

Shuttle Drive

Team Leader
Victoria Selorm Apedoh
Solution Overview
Solution Name
Shuttle Drive
One-line solution summary.

Shuttle Drive is an online platform(Web application & USSD) that helps commuters book buses for their long distance trips across West Africa

Elevator pitch
What is your solution?

Shuttle Drive helps commuters book a bus for their trips from a region to another another region in a country or a country to another country all within West Africa. It uses a web application or USSD over a telecommunication network to book trips, make payments and deliver invoices and receipts to commuters using just a smartphone or telephone. The SD team are equipped with the appropriate digital devices and skills for us to fast track bus or ticket request made by our customers called Shuttle Buddies and ensure the service is delivered in a timely and professional manner.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

The inability of commuters to get buses for their long distance trips with ease therefore making them waste a lot of time in queues and money.

This problem is really huge because most of the people in Africa are lower to middle class who can only travel by bus. The number of people affected by this problem are over 90,000,000 people all living in Africa. 

The reason for this problem is that there's no integrated system that helps the people book buses for their trips easily. And for those private bus companies who have built websites to help ease the problem, their websites are usually not user friendly, not known or most times don't offer people choices conveniently and so in case someone is going to travel to a region, he or she would still need to go through the Hussle of looking for a bus that goes to the person's destination by actually going round visiting bus stations by bus stations.

Some of the consequences of this problem is that people end up wasting time and money before the actual trip begins, they can also get duped by the street guys who realise they are ignorant and so end up exploiting them before showing the way to go and sometimes they can go as far as sending the person to an unknown environment to commit the worse kind of crimes.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our target market are 18-45 years old females and makes or organizations who love to travel on long distance trips and have access to a mobile phone and would prefer using a bus for such trips.

They are currently underserved because they have to go through a lot of stress just to get a bus for their trips to continue their days target and the transportation industry(private and public) are not really helping them to ease their burden and risks they are exposed to get a bus or ticket for their trips.

Shuttle Drive would easily address their needs by being able to provide an online system or platform that would provide all the bus related services(bus ticketing or booking, choice of various bus companies travelling to various parts of West Africa, routes and stops, among others) they would need to have a memorable trip by bus

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

The steps we took to fully understand the problem of bus booking and ticketing in Africa, is that we carried out surveys both online and offline with tourists and travellers who use buses, drivers and station masters where results showed people would really appreciate a bus system which would ease up their stress for booking buses to their hometowns or villages especially during festive seasons. 

The founding member also worked with a startup accelerator organization to help put the ideas and results gotten together for proper implementation

We created our MVP being a landing page which was sent to be tried and tested to help understand the reaction and customer experience of the affected stakeholder to the online system

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Improving financial and economic opportunities for all (Economic Prosperity)
Our solution's stage of development:
  • Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model
Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

Shuttle Drive is at the Prototype stage because currently we are still developing the website and tests are being carried out on it to be able to create it to suit our end users and also yet to acquire a USSD though we are currently using our MVP being our social media handles and a phone number to make bus bookings and the receipts being sent via email or any social media handles provided by our commuters.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Accra, Ghana
Team Lead:
Victoria Selorm Apedoh, the founder and CEO of Shuttle Drive
More About Your Solution
About Your Team
Your Business Model & Resources
Solution Team:
Victoria Selorm Apedoh
Victoria Selorm Apedoh
CEO and Founder