Estonia, Good for Business, Tourism, Transport

Aleksei Kolesnikov, executive manager of Bolt in Estonia, said that the need for the service is clearly there and is there among various target groups. "The service is designed for people with special needs, the elderly, but also for people wearing plaster casts or for parents. When ordering a vehicle, the customer can inform the driver by message or phone call of the kind of support he or she needs -- be it wheelchair assistance or a pair of hands to help a parent with shopping bags and a stroller," he said.

All Assist category cars can fit a collapsible wheelchair and all cars also have a child's seat for children weighing between 15 and 36 kilograms. The category will include Bolt drivers who have received very good feedback from customers and who have gone through training on how to be of help to various customers. The starting fee of the Assist category is three euros more expensive than the regular Bolt category and the minimum price of a journey is five euros.

Bolt's Assist category is an extension of the Tugitakso (Support Taxi) initiative born in the NULA incubator organized by the National Foundation of Civil Society (NFCS) and the Good Deed Foundation. The idea of the initiative is to provide people with special needs with up-to-date and operational support in using transport services with the help of trained drivers.

Ingrid Korgema, founder of Tugitakso, said that people with special needs consider moving around in the city a challenge. "I hope that the availability of the service on the Bolt platform will give them a better opportunity to participate in social life and offer everyone a service according to their individual needs. Upon recent testing of the service, we received only positive feedback from the users," she said.

Bolt, formerly named Taxify, is presently operating in over 30 countries.