Nabilah Safira
TechInPacific – PNG finally welcomes a taxi-hailing ride born from Isaac Jipsy’s idea, who first thought of the idea when he found the walking distance to be more than he could bear.
“Initially, how this concept came about is based on a personal challenge. I normally walk a distance from my place to catch a taxi cab so I decided to create the platform using technology.”
According to Isaac, the concept of an online booking ride is still an unfamiliar sight in PNG and it takes a lot of time to find a perfect partner to invest in this startup business.
“I created and introduced the concept in 2018 as a startup with Taxi operators. I convinced them to merge my product with their taxi fleets but it never eventuated.”
Things start to take a hopeful turn after he met with his friend Michael Ipa.
“I introduced the concept to him and he wasted little to no time to agree with me and we have partnered together in the business.”
Similar to Uber in its online booking ride feature, currently OBEST operates 150 taxis with rates set to the ICCC standard. The taxi is equipped with 24-hour GPS tracking and emergency support, in which a partnership with the police will notify of any alerts.
“The idea was to improve the standard of the public transport system in the city and eventually reach out to other centers.”
“As a Papua New Guinean it’s not fair for us to wait for others to come and do it for us, we take the initiative to create something different to improve the public transport which we believe will be the catalyst for change in the community and society.”
Source: Postcourier.com.png
