PickMe Archives

February 26, 2024

25 February 2024, Colombo: Seylan Bank has entered a strategic partnership with PickMe, the leading ride-hailing and food delivery service in Sri Lanka, to introduce exclusive discounts for Seylan Accelerate Debit Cardholders.

Accordingly, Seylan Accelerate Debit Cardholders will be able to enjoy a 20% discount, up to Rs. 500, on PickMe Rides across the Flex, Mini, and Car categories. In addition to the ride benefits, Seylan Accelerate Debit Cardholders can avail a Rs. 250 discount for transactions above Rs. 1,250 on PickMe Food orders.

These exclusive offers are valid until 1st April 2024, providing Seylan Accelerate Debit Cardholders ample time to take advantage of the savings and convenience offered through the PickMe partnership.

Seylan Accelerate, with its Premier, Prime, Plus, and Entry membership categories, offers more than just banking services. Cardholders can revel in special offers and cash rewards of up to Rs. 200,000 on significant life milestones such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and the birth of children.

But the advantages of Seylan Accelerate don’t stop there. Debit cardholders can enjoy waived withdrawal fees for a minimum of two withdrawals at Seylan Bank and other bank ATMs. Accelerate Plus, Prime, and Premier cardholders take it a step further with entirely free withdrawals at Seylan Bank ATMs.

Seylan Bank extends an invitation to high performers and trailblazers to join the Seylan Accelerate family to experience financial freedom and peace of mind through exceptional benefits and personalised services. To learn more about Seylan Accelerate, visit the nearest Seylan Bank branch or explore www.seylan.lk. For immediate assistance, customers can contact the Seylan 24/7 hotline at 011 200 88 88.

August 3, 2023

Under a new agreement between the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd., and PickMe, the app based ride hailing company will operate a taxi stand within the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). The new arrangement will bring an additional revenue of Rs. 700/- per vehicle to the BIA while making it easier to monitor tourist arrivals.

“We will be generating a daily report to the airport and keeping authorities updated on our vehicle movements. Apart from the BIA, this will also help the tourism industry to gauge arrivals and departures of free individual travellers (FITs) which will help the industry to understand their stays and travel patterns within the island. From the user point of view i.e. foreign tourists, they will have access to a transparent system that will allow them to travel from the BIA to any part of the country at a very reasonable cost. PickMe is already popular amongst video bloggers who travel all over the country, giving useful data to travellers across the world. They have already highlighted that PickMe rates are less than half of what other taxi services stationed at the BIA offers,” says Zulfer Jiffry, CEO of PickMe, adding that the company looks forward to working with the airport to increase and improve Customer Experiences at the airport.

All Airport trips will have PickMe’s Insurance cover for hospitalisation and Life. The company also has the additional advantage of ride tracking on their app, which enables loved ones to easily see their movements even when overseas. This not only increases the safety factor, but also ensures peace of mind for tourists and their families.

Currently the PickMe stand is a 100 square foot area located at the Tourist Exit area of the BIA. They operate 24/7 and will at any given time have a driver at the counter as well as vehicles parked in their allotted slot at the BIA car park. The company is in negotiations with the Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd., to have a dedicated booth within the BIA for further convenience of arriving tourists.

While PickMe already offers welcome and identification board services for airport arrivals, on the PickMe corporate member platform, the CEO says plans are underway to extend this service to all users in the near future. By including this feature on the PickMe app, the company will provide anyone using the app the facility of booking airport pickups and drops with all the additional features such as name board carrying, choice of travelling on the highway etc. without hassle.

The CEO adds that PickMe’s presence at the BIA will boost a wide section of drivers from across the country who are eager to make inroads in servicing tourists arriving in Sri Lanka. “This is a very good move towards democratising opportunity in the tourism industry. Inasmuch digital platforms for booking accommodation and train travel have opened up our island to the world, digitalised app hailing transport services will also help in attracting tourists to the country, particularly those who travel on tight budgets. We look forward to working with BIA to increase and improve Customer Experiences. The Airport is such an important touch point for any visitor to Sri Lanka, and in line with our promise to every overseas arrival, we have established a dedicated AirPort hotline so that they can access our services immediately on touch down, without having to wait or haggle for airport transfers to anywhere in the country.”

June 16, 2023

PickMe has reduced their monthly fee by Rs. 200/- for customers using their PickMe Pass service in lieu with their one year celebration of the launch of PickMe Mass. Customers can now avail themselves of PickMe Pass for Rs. 499/- per month and be eligible for a wide range of services offered by the Sri Lankan app-based ride hailing company.

“In the past year we saw a 35% increase in the PickMe Food category and to share our continued success with our customers, we decided to further reduce the fee. PickMe has enabled customers to save more than Rs. 150 million in the form of delivery and promotions and we want to help them save more through our membership programme,” says Jiffry Zulfer, CEO of PickMe.

The PickMe Pass membership programme, launched at the height of the economic crisis, celebrates one year this month. The CEO says the programme has not only benefited PickMe customers but has also helped PickMe merchants connected to their app to revive their businesses which in turn have a positive impact in improving the country’s economy.

May 22, 2023

PickMe has become a trailblazer by creating safety nets for those working in the gig economy. Currently, over 11,000 drivers are covered under the company’s latest insurance scheme. As PickMe expands their platinum and gold categories for drivers, the insurance scheme will provide cover to more people. Something unique about the scheme is that PickMe drivers are paid insurance claims even for accidents that may occur during periods they are off duty, making it the only digital platform to extend protection to gig workers 24 hours of the day.

“This program not only covers drivers, but also their families. 1,675 claims have been made to date, amounting to Rs. 38,467,610. 3 claims were paid following deaths of drivers, one while working on the app. Funeral expenses of members’ parents and spouses’ parents have also been covered for 405 drivers. Claims can be made for child birth and 421 drivers received a payment of Rs. 50,000 each. Hospitalisation for general purposes as well as covid were also covered. Allowances for grade 5 scholarship, O/Ls and A/Ls were paid for 189 children,” says Jiffry Zulfer, Founder CEO of PickMe.

The Rs. 4 million Insurance scheme provided by PickMe through Cooperative Insurance allows a maximum medical insurance cover of up to Rs. 3,000,000 in case of an accidental death or Permanent disability to a driver or a family member. Beneficiaries are entitled to a Life Insurance cover of up to Rs 1,000,000 and will receive compensation up to Rs 1.5 million and Rs 300,000 in case of critical illness. The terms of the Insurance scheme also allows for a payment of Rs 30,000/- as compensation in case of hospitalisation. The Insurance Scheme will extend financial assistance of Rs. 30,000 – Rs. 50,000 in the event of a funeral in the family.

Palitha Kodithuwakku, representative of the Co-Operative Insurance Company said, “Insurance premiums are given to children facing university entrance exams as well. We hope to increase the number of 11,000 PickMe drivers who are currently covered by the insurance to 25,000 – 30,000 in the future.”

As digital services gradually take centre stage in most economies, the PickMe platform is positioning itself as the second tier of public transport. At the same time, the company is also bringing value addition to app-based deliveries, which is becoming a popular solution for home and office utilities.

Whilst the platform’s taxi hailing services have expanded and have reached pre pandemic levels, the digital platform is experiencing large numbers of people joining them to create livelihoods for themselves.

“In the past there were various accusations levelled at digital platforms who use gig services as being impersonal and dismissive towards those providing services as employees. This is not the case with PickMe, as we in the past 5 years have been developing systems within a system where there is no employer-employee relationship, to ensure that we provide a sense of belonging and loyalty amongst our drivers to the platform. Insurance coverage for the driver and family is one such offering and it has had a great response,” says Zulfer Jiffry, CEO of PickMe.

PickMe’s insurance coverage for drivers, which has been in operation for nearly 4 years, is awarded free of charge to drivers who reach gold and platinum levels of service on their platform. The levels are reached based on drivers general conduct, performance and reliability.

March 31, 2023

PickMe will continue to be market leaders in prices in the taxi hailing market with them further bringing down the charge per kilometre to Rs.68.

“The current slashing of petrol prices by CPC will be passed down to the passenger and we will continue to give value to the driver who works in the gig economy. The authorities have stipulated that the maximum price for tuk tuks have a starting price of Rs. 100 followed by Rs. 80 from the second kilometre. We are able to stay well below the rates of the road tuktuks as our digital platform makes the system efficient as drivers don’t have to be plying the roads in search of customers,” says Jiffry Zulfer, CEO of PickMe.

PickMe’s driver network is continuing to expand. Last year alone the app-based mobility company registered over 40,000 new drivers. This year PickMe saw a double digit growth in demand and the app is also becoming popular amongst tourists visiting the country

March 2, 2023

IFC endorses PickMe as a star performer in the transport sector

PickMe, which has completed 100 million rides covering 900 million kilometres over the last 8 years, says technology is their greatest success factor. Over 120 IT engineers work at the company to build an ecosystem that allows millions of people to engage on the platform for their livelihoods, for their families that indirectly benefit from this income, and for direct users of the services offered.

The PickMe network has thrived and attracted the interest of high-profile investors. Key amongst them is the International Finance Corporation (IFC) who named the company a star performer amongst startups in Sri Lanka. Ruchira Shukla, Disruptive Technology Investments South Asia Lead for IFC, who participated in the recently held ‘Internet Day 2022’ organised by Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS) said the Corporation was very pleased with the achievements of PickMe, which began as an IFC backed tech start-up. “They have executed really well through the macroeconomic storms over the last two years,” she said, adding that Sri Lanka continues to do well in the transport sector with PickMe as a star performer.

Jiffry Zulfer, Founder CEO of PickMe, says, “While technology is positioned well within our company, the fact that we can integrate proactively into communities and give value to both customers and driver partners is because we have become competitive and allow market forces to determine our pricing. This is a win-win for all, and our fares are twenty to thirty percent below the tuk-tuks that are not app-based. What this proves is, when technology and transport solutions merge, there is value addition. On a macro, the economy can see many benefits when more people move towards rider hailing services and stop using private cars. The addition of various things, like carpooling, can increase the number of passengers in a vehicle, allowing for better per-person mileage on a litre of fuel. Our recently introduced feature, Direction, is showing significant results in this area.”

Another of the key factors for PickMe’s success has been its agility and the ability to pivot to current trends, which is now a trademark the company takes pride in. PickMe can tweak their systems to change course and speedily adapt to the ambient social and economic environment and this was proven during the lockdown, when the company pivoted to adapt to the most challenging of times.

PickMe says since they are a digital company, there is the potential to grow even beyond the sovereign borders of Sri Lanka, to provide digital transport solutions to neighbouring countries needing an efficient service. However, a step in the right direction in achieving this would be a level playing field for the country’s digital economy, which PickMe is lobbying for with relevant policy makers.

February 9, 2023

January 23, 2023

PickMe in 2023 will attract new segments of the community to their platform by adding state-of-the-art features that will help users beat the economic doldrums by providing win-win transport solutions.

PickMe’s new feature ‘Direction’ allows vehicle owners to share travel plans (from A to B) and their willingness to provide rides to those in need. This gives driver partners on the platform the opportunity to pick up paying passengers along the way. With ‘Direction,’ vehicle owners will earn money while using their vehicles, and passengers can also benefit from finding a convenient and cost effective way to get to their destinations. In essence, it’s carpooling with a difference, allowing drivers to get more miles per litre of fuel while improving their fuel economy. PickMe CEO Jiffry Zulfer says the new feature is fast becoming a secondary source of income for middle-class vehicle owners in the city.

The gig economy has proven to be a sustainable formula on the PickMe platform in the current economic climate, and PickMe will continue to strengthen systems this year, to ensure a stable working environment for their primary and secondary income driver and rider partner networks.

“In a country where people working in non-permanent employment arrangements are considered a negative, we have ensured that more and more people engage in this form of employment and we have the numbers to prove it. Last year alone, the network expanded exponentially, directly impacting the GDP growth of our provinces. Our taxi hailing growth was at 250% and our rider hailing grew by 35% clearly showing that PickMe is a well positioned local brand which has gained the acceptance of the public and those on the gig platform,” says Jiffry Zulfer

Although there is no employer-employee relationship in a gig economy, where driver and rider partners can work in whatever time frame they want and leave the network without notice, the company pays special attention to building loyalty amongst them. PickMe CEO says the company offers special benefits through loyalty programmes for their primary income category driver and rider partners. In line with that, PickMe has over the last 5 years, invested Rs. 25 million in their Nana Pahana programme. In its first year, the programme rewarded 200 driver partners, and in 2022 that number has grown to 1,200. The annual event focuses exclusively on the education of children, with school textbooks and student materials provided to school going children of top performers working on the PickMe platform. Driver partners belonging to the gold and platinum categories are evaluated quarterly, based on their performance and driver ratings, which are in line with the quality of service they provide their customers.

Projects like these have increased PickMe’s driver retention, performance and service quality to end users. Over the past 5 years, PickMe has supported over 4000 driver partners through the Nana Pahana programme. In keeping with their 2023 theme, ‘PickMe to use technology for the wellbeing of the people,’ the company will drive several solutions that will add value to everyone using their network.

January 2, 2023

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Ride hailing and food deliveries have reached pre-covid numbers for PickMe, pointing towards the economy starting to get back on its feet by December 2022. In the last year alone, the app based mobile operator registered over 40,000 new drivers into their network, showing robust growth for the PickMe platform.

Jiffry Zulfer, CEO of PickMe says, 2022 was a successful year for PickMe as the company was able to expand their services further by connecting their new driver partners across all their verticals. The new driver registrations spanned 25 cities with the highest number of 20,947, i.e. 52 percent of the total number of new registrants recorded from Colombo. Gampaha had 8,141 and Kandy 3,665 registrants, making up 20 and 9 percent respectively. The rest, spread across the other 22 cities, make up the balance 19 percent. The company introduced many verticals during the pandemic, building on PickMe Food and expanding to Market, Flash, Rentals as well as Scan n go. “By increasing our driver partners, PickMe is now in a better position to service all these verticals and we hope to further increase our driver partners, so that our network will be accessible in all parts of the country. Currently, we operate in 25 cities, including Jaffna, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Badulla with Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee being the latest.”

He adds that there are several factors contributing to the company’s growth. Colombo’s growth rate remains stable mainly because PickMe operates a fuel distribution outlet to service their network. The macro economic factors also contributed to more drivers joining the network, i.e. people looking for other income opportunities. From a customer point of view, demand for PickMe increased due to a change in trend in terms of how customers perceived the service during the fuel crisis. “This was especially so with tuk-tuks, because those operating outside the PickMe network during the fuel crisis quoted erratic fares to customers.”

Other main changes in trends PickMe sees for growth in post-covid numbers is the fact that more and more private car owners are looking at using PickMe as an alternative due to high maintenance cost of vehicles as well as their convenience. “People in urban areas are using services because of the cost factor, where our prices remain dynamic and are managed in a way that would not burden the common man. At the sametime we give our drivers a fair price for their hours of service. The main criteria here is cost saving,” says Jiffry Zulfer, CEO of PickMe.

The CEO adds, as the local player PickMe will continue to provide more opportunity to everyone connected and connecting to their network so that they would be able to sustain during these difficult times. He says PickMe would continue to be agile and pivot to offer the best services and rates on their platform as well as create additional incomes for people, which in turn will support the overall efforts to bolster Sri Lanka’s economy.

November 28, 2022

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PickMe has taken its technology interface a couple of notches higher, with the platform modifying its algorithms to introduce a new product that will provide more benefits for the company’s customer base, increase growth of its merchants and enhance rider income.

Zulfer Jiffry, CEO of PickMe says the company’s new product, ‘PickMe Pass’ is a natural progression for any technological platform that deals with algorithms. “We live in an era where the digital economy impacts our lives on a daily basis. Our customers increasingly seek more convenience and better value for their money. This means finding ways to mix and match situations and issues we face, by finding solutions that will improve our lives. Customers who wish to be a part of this new technology input, will have the option of paying a nominal fee, which will give them priority access to a range of benefits across the various product categories on the PickMe platform including benefits such as taxi matching, driver selection and customer service as well as getting full waivers on delivery fees. While this will provide a higher level of service to our customers, it will also directly benefit our driver network, partner outlets and restaurants.”

‘PickMe Pass’ kicked off on 25th October 2022. “The launch of this new service on our platform is significant at this particular time because the country is on a drive to revitalise tourism in the coming winter season. With over 300,000 tourist arrivals expected we need to bring the city’s restaurants and food outlets back to pre-pandemic levels to support city tourism. Whilst these establishments are slowly coming back to life, they need a boost so that the local economy can have the big break it needs. It is important for tourists to see and experience a vibrant Colombo, so that they can take good news back with them,” the CEO says.

“35% of the restaurant business in Colombo and suburbs depend on deliveries for their sustenance and we are hopeful of increasing current levels by another 50% with the new product introduced on the platform. This will give restaurants additional impetus to keep their doors open during the season and help bring in the holiday cheer back to the city,” he adds.

Agility and the ability to pivot to current trends is a trademark of PickMe, something the company takes pride in. PickMe can tweak their systems to change course and speedily adapt to the ambient social and economic environment which was proven during the lockdown, when the company pivoted to adapt to the most challenging of times. With their new technological advance, the company will again boost the city economy by helping restaurants to keep their doors open during the season because shop fronts are vital to move the economy.

The new product is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, developed entirely by the innovative software engineers on the PickMe team. The company’s software platform facilitates a real-time connection between the ride hailer, driver and the team, enabling a secure, seamless, and speedy engagement of the app-based service.

Older Posts

Seylan Bank and PickMe Partner to Offer Savings to Seylan Accelerate Debit Cardholders

BIA to earn Rs. 700/- per taxi from PickMe

150 million worth of savings for PickMe Pass customers

PickMe insures drivers on and off the clock

PickMe reduces prices further on their km rate

PickMe passes 100 million rides and 900 million km benchmark

Statement from PickMe in response to the recent incident in Galle

PickMe’s new feature enables secondary income for middle-class

PickMe registers over 40,000 new drivers in 2022

PickMe Tweaks Algorithms to boost Colombo’s Restaurant Economy