Grace Ashiru
Nigerian mobility company Shuttlers has expanded beyond scheduled bus transportation with the introduction of Shuttlers Pod, a pre-booked car service that allows passengers in Lagos to reserve private or shared door-to-door journeys.
The new product applies several features of Shuttlers’ existing commuter model to passenger cars.
Users select their pickup location, destination and desired travel time in advance. They can then choose between sharing a vehicle with passengers travelling along compatible routes or booking the entire car privately.
Unlike Shuttlers’ traditional bus model, which relies more heavily on predetermined pickup and drop-off points, Pod is designed to take passengers directly to their requested destinations.
The company says advance scheduling allows it to optimise vehicle use and provide more predictable pricing than conventional on-demand ride-hailing services.
Prices are displayed before a booking is confirmed, and each scheduled journey is assigned to a driver, whom Shuttlers refers to as a “Pilot.”
The company has claimed that shared Pod journeys can be considerably cheaper than conventional ride-hailing trips because passengers divide the cost of the vehicle.
However, Shuttlers has not published a comprehensive independent fare comparison demonstrating that this will apply across every route and journey.
Founded in 2016, Shuttlers initially built its business around scheduled shared buses for professionals and corporate commuters.
Its technology coordinates reservations, routes, payments and vehicle utilisation, allowing commuters to book regular journeys rather than relying entirely on informal public transportation or on-demand taxis.
The launch of Pod moves Shuttlers further into the wider passenger-car market while preserving its emphasis on scheduled transportation.
That gives the company an opportunity to use infrastructure originally developed for buses—including routing technology, payments and passenger scheduling—in a different segment of urban mobility.
Shuttlers says its wider platform has completed more than 10 million journeys and operates across major Nigerian cities including Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
Pod represents an attempt to broaden that model by targeting commuters who want the convenience and privacy of a smaller vehicle while still benefiting from scheduled trips and shared costs.
