The Black Ride was rated the best Fairwork Platform in the 2021 Fairwork- Ghana Report Ratings, scoring 7 out of 10 points.
The report, which covered a period of one-year investigation by the collaborative efforts of University of Oxford and University of Ghana, through the Fairwork-Ghana Project, was sponsored by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
It was implemented through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and launched by the honorable MP for Abetifi Hon. Bryan Acheampong.
The Fairwork Foundation founded by the Oxford Internet Institute in 2018 and supported by the BMZ, highlights best and worst practices of digital platforms with the aim of creating a fairer digital platform economy. A global network of researchers evaluates digital platforms against the principles of fair work (fair pay, fair working conditions, fair contracts, fair management processes and fair participation).
These principles are based on international labour standards for good work and were developed through a participatory process with researchers, workers, employer organizations, trade unions and regulators in Geneva. Based on the scores, platform rankings and yearly country reports, decision-makers can take evidence-based regulatory steps to enable clients and service providers to choose platforms with better working conditions.
The CEO of the Black Ride, Mr. Tony Klah recognizes that there are no jobs that define people, and no job is demeaning. Jobs are needed to improve economic growth, and it is imperative that it is offered in a space that is respectful, decent and fair to ensure quality stakeholder engagement.
In order to ensure that SDG8 – DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH is achieved, it is important for stakeholders to engage in this platform economy in a space that is safe and fair in support of this sustainable development goal. SDG-8 reports that about 255 million full time jobs have been lost due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
This loss is believed to have accounted for the sharp rise in platform work across the world, including Ghana, due to the low barrier to its entry. To safeguard the decency of the services provided by the drivers on the platform, the Black Ride calls for a unionized approach to manage the service providers of digital platforms to ensure that their rights are protected in engaging in decent work.
This will lead to happy service providers delivering top notch services to happy clients.
The result will be improved economic growth. The Black Ride began its operations in Accra, and moved to Sekondi-Takoradi to activate the digital ride hailing economy.
It has reduced unemployment and enabled families to earn extra income to participate in growing the economy. This effort has seen a number of platforms spring up in the economy.
The Black Ride has, over time, engaged its service providers to understand their working conditions, and thus designed and improved its platform to address those conditions. Honest work over the years has finally been recognized and the Black Ride is excited about the rating and promises to do better in the years to come in line with the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651), by further improvement in the working conditions on its platforms.
Founded in 2017, the Black Ride seeks to revolutionize the ride hailing platform and transport industry in Ghana by providing the requisite technological platform that enables both the drivers (service providers) and passengers (clients) to effectively engage in the digital ride hailing economy in a manner that is decent, safe and transparent. via the use of the black ride mobile applications available on the Google play and Apple App stores.