Cassava Smartech’s subsdiary Vaya Africa have announced a partnership with ZUPCO. Those who want to travel using ZUPCO buses can now book their ride on a ZUPCO bus using the app. This only applies to long distance journey involving buses to Mutare, Bulawayo and Harare and not everyday commuting using ZUPCO.

In order to book a ride you need to follow these steps:

  • Install the Vaya Africa app onto your phone either from the Apple App store or from Google Play if you are using Android.
  • Sign app for Vaya or sing in if you already have an account
  • Tap on mobility
  • Select on Vaya Buses-that’s an unfortunate name as it gives the impression that you are hiring a Vaya bus.
  • You will be asked to pick a departure location- this is where you have to be careful. Choose your usual bus stop i.e. where you used to get to if you wanted to catch a bus to whatever city you intent to travel to.
  • Choose your desired destination again be careful to choose the rank at which you used to disembark
  • Choose departure date
  • Choose the number of passengers
  • Tap on find bus, if you are lucky your details will return a number of potential buses. If not try again by tapping on the search icon and fine-tuning your details

I tried using the app and to be honest, it was a bit underwhelming. Unfortunately Mbare Musika is not listed as a terminus. Also the app is made less foolproof by the fact that it lists all manner of bus stops instead of just one stop per town. It even allows you to make choices that are impossible in the real world such as having Departure and Destination set as the same bus stop.

This app is no doubt useful in these difficult times we continue to live in but Vaya has to make it simpler. There should be no multiple bus stops to begin with just towns. These are long-distance buses and in most cases, the stop shouldn’t matter. Passengers should pick their departure town and destination town and informed of the pickup points of the available buses. That alone would make the app much more useful and prevent some of the no results.