The Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL), the apex body for ICT professionals in Sri Lanka recently awarded Shohan Kulasuriya as the Best Social Innovator of 2020 at the CSSL National ICT Awards. The title was in recognition of his Pink Drives initiative, which is currently Sri Lanka’s first and only exclusively women-driven taxi service. The accolade comes as the service celebrates its first year of operations since kicking things off back in 2020.
Pink Drives is one of the newest entrants in the already crowded taxi scene in Sri Lanka. But unlike the players in the industry, Pink Drives offers a unique proposition. It’s to provide taxis exclusively for women and children, driven by women. It’s a simple idea for a very real problem that women every day. But it’s an idea that has been picking up. Particularly amidst a pandemic.
Thriving in a COVID-affected landscape
According to Founder Shohan Kulasuriya, the service started with a modest 10 lady drivers. Today, Pink Drives has 40 drivers working full time and part-time that move around Colombo regularly. Out of these, 60% of them are part-timers.
However, that’s not to say it hasn’t been challenging. “We’ve completed one year, but during this time we had to hold operations in three lockdowns as we did not want our lady drivers to risk themselves as they too have families”, says Kulasuriya. Adding to this, most passengers were working from home, and schooling was done online for the majority of the duration. Kulasuriya claims that this took away six months of operations out of the 12 within its year of operations.
Looking to the future
Apart from offering a premium service for women and children, the service also serves as a means of enabling women with more opportunities and support. This is one reason why Pink Drives now accepts fixed hires in addition to the routine bookings. So, whether you’re someone traveling between work every day, getting your kids to and from school, classes, or other appointments, Pink Drives has you covered. “This way, the lady drivers are assured with a fixed income too apart from the other hires they take,” state Kulasuriya.
Looking at the journey ahead, the women-driven taxi service hopes to expand to other regions of the island. Right now, the service operates within Colombo. However, the impact of the pandemic has slowed down its expansion efforts. “We were planning to expand to other major districts by mid this year, however, it was delayed due to the current situation,” says Kulasuriya.
As the Best Social Innovator of 2020, Pink Drives remains optimistic about its future in the market. According to Kulasuriya, steps have already been taken to introduce this service to the other major cities in Sri Lanka by early next year.
The Pink Drives app was developed by Deegenics, the company that’s also behind Sri Lanka’s first citizen-led incident and event management app, ManKiwwa. You can find the Pink Drives app available for download on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
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