PickMe rewards patrons and partners with ‘PickMe Waasi’ and ‘Lakshapathi Waram’

The fifth driver to win Rs. 100,000, Tharanga Pushpakumara who drives a three wheeler, collected his cheque from PickMe Chairman Ajit Gunewardene while PickMe Chief Executive Officer Jiffry Zulfer (far left) looks on 

PickMe, the tech-based taxi hailing start-up continues to be more and more a part of daily transport, especially in Colombo, as it has become a very popular choice among many daily commuters over a short period of 18 months since its launch in June 2015. 

“Many of our patrons seem to feel that we’ve been in operation for much longer than 18 months. This notion kindles in us the humble pride of knowing that we have become much closer to their hearts and lives than we would have imagined possible when we first launched,” says PickMe VP-Communications Portia Ratnayake. “We’ve been welcomed, encouraged and tolerated by our patrons with a lot of love and patience since day one,” she added. 

PickMe announced a three month loyalty program for their patrons called ‘PickMe Waasi’ where 1,000 passengers will be awarded with PickMe merchandise every week. 100 passengers will be gifted with a Rs. 10,000 shopping voucher every month for three months and one cash prize of Rs. 1 million will be awarded to a lucky winner on 10 June. There will also be 10 consolation prizes of the grand draw where 10 other lucky passengers will win an iPhone 7 each. A certain target number of rides must be achieved by patrons against each rewarding level to be eligible for the draw. “The targets are very easily achieved by our regular passengers. We designed this program in such a way that by the end of the three months, most of our regular patrons would have won at least a few weekly gifts from us. A lot of thought and effort has been put in to the program from the selecting of the gifts to the communications with the passengers, we wanted it to be a personal tribute, representing the true respect we have for our patrons,” says PickMe Chief Executive Officer Jiffry Zulfer. 

So far, PickMe has rewarded 5,000 weekly winners and the first 100 monthly winners for the month of March. “The feedback we receive from our patrons regarding the PickMe Waasi program is very encouraging, to say the least,” says Portia. 

Though most of the excitement is visible at the passenger end, PickMe says that PickMe Waasi’ is not the only loyalty program they are running these days. ‘PickMe Lakshapathi Waram’ is the rewarding scheme launched simultaneously for their driver-partners where PickMe rewards one out-standing performer with Rs. 100,000 every week. The fifth driver to win his Rs. 100,000, Tharanga Pushpakumara who drives a three wheeler, collected his cheque from PickMe Chairman Ajit Gunewardene, at a conference held at Ramada Colombo on 7 April.  

“After all the technology is only a connecting platform, the drivers are the heart and soul of the service,” says Ajit Gunewardene, pointing out the importance of encouraging members of the PickMe fleet. 

PickMe says that these two programs are only the start; and that PickMe patrons and partners can expect greater loyalty benefits in coming months as well. 

As the largest organised taxi platform in Sri Lanka, PickMe currently services the Colombo region’s complete transportation needs and maintains a base of over half a million registered users of the PickMe app and a taxi fleet of over ten thousand, including three wheelers, mini cars, cars and vans.