Revamping taxis for a commuters’ great experience
Sarel came up with the idea to install television screens, Wifi Hotspot, charging points and surveillance cameras in eMalahleni’s taxis
Not even born nor bred in eMalahleni, Sarel Shabangu is working towards bettering taxi commuters’ lives through his technology creativeness and innovations in our town.
Sarel came up with the idea to install television screens, Wifi Hotspot, charging points and surveillance cameras in eMalahleni’s taxis.
He calls his innovation ‘Marketing On The Go’, which allows local businesses to advertise on the TV screens and provide entertainment for the commuters.
The 30-year-old from Bushbuckridge, in the lowveld of Mpumalanga, said that he came up with the idea when he was still a full time taxi driver in eMalahleni.
He has managed to install the innovation in six local taxis owned by different people since he came up with the idea in February 2018.
Sarel is not qualified in any field of work but he has survived being an upcoming entrepreneur as far through the little he knows and his creative ideas.
“Before I realised that I could make a business out of this, I had a 32 inch TV screen in my taxi and a Wi-Fi router just for my commuters to enjoy free Wi-Fi. Thereafter, I thought I should have unlimited Wi-Fi for everyone in the taxi to connect, that is when the idea kicked in.”
Sarel said that attracting the taxi community and associations in eMalahleni for his innovation was not difficult because he knows how taxi owners and drivers operate and how to talk to them as a former driver himself.
He emphasized that he does this to give back to the community.
“I did this innovation and implementing it to give back to the association that I was working under known as the Local Taxi Association (LOTA) when I was still a full time taxi driver and it made things easier because I was able to test the market with individuals under the association and local businesses around eMalahleni instead of going back home to do my business.”
He added and said that he is doing all this to better the experience of taxi commuters and to inspire people. He explained: “You can be something from nothing, you can make money out of the bank you use to save your money, and to also remind people that you have more chances to be hired somewhere because of your creativity and innovative ideas, not necessarily your academic qualifications.”
