Uber is providing free rides to SA voters come election day

Tech savvy cab service Uber has decided to provide South Africans headed out to voting stations on 7 May with free rides. According to the service, users who enter the promotion code can enjoy two free Uber trips between 7am and 9pm.

Uber, with its US$3.76-billion valuation, is a company that is disrupting the private driver space. Based in San Francisco, Uber makes a mobile application that connects passengers with drivers of luxury vehicles for hire. At its core, the company is an on-demand private driver. Users of the service can request a ride at any time using its iPhone, BlackBerry and Android apps or from its mobi site. With your credit card registered on the service, the car picks you up and the trip is tracked from the moment you get in ’til you get off.

“This coming election day, new and existing UBER users can enter the promotion code: VOTESA to redeem two free rides, each up to R200 in value,” said the company in a statement.

The campaign dubbed VoteSA comes just ten months after the service’s first African expansion.

“At Uber, we are incredibly passionate about helping people move around the cities that they live in,” says Uber’s head in Africa and the Middle East, Jambu Palaniappan. “We have received a warm welcome in South Africa, and are very excited about current operations in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.”

According to the company its May 7th promotion is its way of marking its success in the country but also a way to help making the voting process a tad more convenient for South Africans.

“On May 7th, we’d like to give back by making it easier for people to go out and vote. We’d also encourage all of our users to take an elderly friend or family member with them to the polls, so that everyone has their chance to be heard,” he added.