Why we built Detour Capital the way we did

When I sat down to design how Detour would help drivers with cash, I had a choice that every business in this space faces, whether it admits it or not.

You can build something that earns more the longer a driver stays in debt. Or you can build something that earns when drivers do well and keep coming back. On paper the first can look better. I chose the second, and I want to explain why, because it shapes every part of Detour Capital.

The incentive problem in driver finance

Think about a loan that can roll over. Every time a driver cannot pay and the loan rolls, the lender earns again. The worse the driver's week, the more the lender makes. That incentive is broken from the start, and drivers feel it, even when they cannot name it.

I have watched too many drivers go through it. A loan that looked manageable on day one, and was unmanageable three months later, because the cost kept starting again.

What we decided instead

Detour Capital is a short-term loan from a registered credit provider, and it does carry a cost. We are open about that. What we control is the shape of it, and we built that shape around four rules.

1. The cost is a fixed amount in rands, shown before the driver asks. On Professional Driver, R1 000 is paid back as R1 270: R120 interest and fees plus the R150 subscription. On-The-Go is R500 back as R720. MyOwnBoss is R2 500 back as R2 870.
2. The term is one week, and only one week. There is no option to stretch it to four or six weeks, so nothing compounds and nothing rolls over.
3. Repayment comes from the money that pays for it: one payment from the driver's next week's Uber earnings. No debit order chasing a bank account on the wrong day.
4. Nothing is hidden. No admin fee, and nothing added later.

Each request is assessed, so approval is not guaranteed. That protects drivers as much as anyone: a loan a driver cannot pay back next week is not help.

Where Detour earns

Detour is a subscription business. Drivers pay a flat weekly fee for their plan, and the plan carries real things: Mobility Vouchers for fuel and EV charging, roadside and medical help, data-free apps on the higher plans, and access to Detour Capital when the week needs it.

That means our growth depends on more drivers deciding a Detour plan is worth it every week, not on existing drivers borrowing more or paying back slower. Our incentive is to keep drivers steady, so they stay.

Questions I think anyone should ask of driver finance

Whether you are a partner, an investor or a driver, these are the questions I ask of my own business, and I think they cut through any pitch.

• Does revenue grow when customers stay in debt longer, or when more customers choose to stay?
• Is the cost to the customer fixed and stated up front, or does it grow with time and lateness?
• Does the product still work for the business if customers borrow less than expected?
• Does collection match when the customer is actually paid?
• Would the people who built it be comfortable explaining every rand of it to the customer face to face?

How I learned this

I did not start Detour knowing all of this. I funded the early days with my own money and the support of people who believed in it before there was much to show. I made mistakes and learned a lot of it while building.

What came out the other side is a simple belief. The fairest finance for drivers is not the one that pretends to be free. It is the one where the driver can see every rand of the cost, knows exactly when it ends, and pays it back from the money that was always going to pay for it.

That is the bar we set for Detour Capital, and it is the bar we want to be held to.