It’s called La Nave, it’s expensive, punctual, safe and a good deal for drivers.
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 16 September 2024 — Marco and Liudmila drink a cold beer while watching the long line of people trying to catch a taxi in the vicinity of L and 23 in El Vedado, Havana. The couple is not worried. As soon as they finish the drink, she will take out her mobile phone, make a couple of clicks and a vehicle will come to pick them up. In the middle of a city almost paralyzed by the lack of fuel, the La Nave [Ship] application carries those customers who can pay its high prices.
“I’ve been using it for over a year and it has never failed me, which is rare in this country where when it’s not one problem, it’s another,” Liudmila told 14ymedio. “I heard about it from a friend who came to visit from abroad and told me about La Nave. I didn’t even know it existed, but he had read about the service on an internet forum and he used it all the time during the days he was here.”
Also known as the “Cuban Uber” due to its similarities with the popular American company that provides transportation in numerous countries, it attracts customers who want efficient transportation and are willing to pay fares that can be several times higher than the prices of the almendrones, but which can sometimes be cheaper than those of other private taxis. For drivers, it also has many attractions, including better earnings and greater safety.
“It has many advantages and you earn good money, although you have to give 20% to the agency, but it brings me business”
“I’ve been working with La Nave for two and a half years and I don’t want to go back to driving on my own because it’s a bit dangerous now to be picking up passengers on the street without really knowing who the person is or where they’re going,” explained a driver who responded to a ride request this Sunday from Cojímar, in East Havana, to the vicinity of the Neptuno hotel in Playa, speaking to this newspaper.
“There are many advantages and you earn good money, although you have to give 20% to the agency, but it brings me business. There are days when I make up to 20,000 pesos*, after deducting what I have to give to management,” he explains. “I don’t make trips to the airport or go out to the provinces, but I take passengers anywhere else.”
With his bright red Lada, the young driver greets his clients, two Cuban-Americans, with a smile and heads toward their destination while a GPS attached to the app on his cell phone screen guides him through the city streets. At the end of the trip and depending on the distance traveled, the traveler will know the total amount to pay, although La Nave shows an estimate from the beginning.
On the mobile screen, when ordering the service, a customer can choose between different vehicles ranging from a motorcycle, to a basic car, to others with greater capacity or better conditions. “Luxury, what is luxury, there is none, but you can ask for cars with greater comfort and air conditioning, for example,” explains the driver to his clients, who are still surprised by the speed with which they were picked up after requesting the trip.
The car arrives at its destination and the fare exceeds 3,000 pesos, the average monthly salary of a Cuban worker. One of the young men hands over three bills with the face of Julio Antonio Mella. “Don’t slam the door on me when you leave,” warns the driver, who almost immediately receives an announcement of another ride through the app. “Good afternoon, Norge, I’m your driver and I’m going to pick you up, I’m three minutes away,” he explains in a call. By the end of the day, he will have repeated the cycle a dozen times.
For 100 dollars paid electronically, the customer’s account is recharged this week with 35,200 pesos
For those who have relatives abroad or have a Visa or Mastercard, the payment process can be simplified by an online purchase. For 100 dollars paid electronically, the client’s account is recharged this week with 35,200 pesos, even above the informal market rate which this September has stabilized at 320 CUP per dollar.
“The fund that the La Nave driver has to deposit to start receiving rides through the app can also be paid this way and now it must be at least 10,000 pesos. My brother who lives in Spain puts it in for me,” explains a woman who has been registered as a driver at La Nave for over a year with her Czech-made Skoda. “As a woman, it is safer for me to work this way because from the moment the client requests the ride I already have an idea of who they are and where they are going. There are no surprises or scares.”
Another similar service, Agencia René, instead of using an app, uses the instant messaging services Telegram and WhatsApp to interact with its clients. Leandro, 49, who is dedicated to importing merchandise from Panama to resell in the island’s informal market, is one of its regular clients.
“I always ride to the airport with the René Agency because they are very serious. I usually leave on the Copa Airlines flight at six in the morning because it is cheaper, so I need a taxi in the early morning and with them I feel confident that they will come and I won’t have any problems,” he explains to this newspaper.
“Right now the situation is a bit complicated because they launched an audit and La Nave no longer has a physical headquarters in Cuba”
Every time Leandro has a flight, he hires the ride through Telegram, detailing how many passengers will travel, the nationality of each one, whether they have luggage and in what currency he prefers to pay. “The last time, a few days ago, the trip from La Víbora to terminal three of the airport cost me 6,500 pesos, 500 pesos more than what I paid at the end of July,” he says.
The René Agency fleet includes numerous taxis that are rented by their drivers from the State. Yellow and modern, the vehicles were once the taxi fleet intended primarily for tourists arriving on the island. However, the drop in the number of visitors has increasingly forced its drivers to accept domestic clients.
Heriberto, 55, is one of these drivers who went from working at a state-owned base to renting a state-owned Citroën and working for a private agency. “I provide services with both La Nave and Agencia René,” he explains to 14ymedio. “Right now the situation is a bit complicated because they launched an audit and La Nave no longer has a physical headquarters in Cuba,” he says. “Before, there was an office and you went there to register, with your operating license, to be able to provide service, especially trips to the airport.”
The driver explains that “an audit at that headquarters and the constant problems with banks in Cuba have meant that the application is now being operated from abroad.” In the case of the René Agency: “They also got a scare with an audit and had to close for a few days, but they are now working again, although they do everything through digital channels.”
For Heriberto, “the fuel crisis has complicated everything.” In his opinion, “there are drivers who are giving up covering a route with their taxis to get into the transportation app business because they are more comfortable and earn more.” This “can be seen in the number of cars available for some stretches and, of course, it leaves out all those customers who now pay 200 or 300 for a trip and cannot afford to pay 2,000 or 3,000.”
“Liudmila and Marco still have the taste of beer in their mouths when the car that brought them from the corner of L and 23 drops them off in front of their house at the Casino Deportivo. As soon as they arrive, the woman gives La Nave a high rating for the driver for good service. “It was a comfortable and fast trip, it’s incredible that this continues to work in this country where nothing works.”
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