The problem
International tech giants dominate ride-hailing on Amman’s streets, but their pricing, support, and driver terms are set far from Jordan — and drivers working through smart applications pay 30–35% of trip revenue to platforms while lacking any body that protects their rights.
How it works
Petra Ride pitches global technology with a local touch: riders choose personalised private rides or licensed yellow taxis with upfront prices, live driver tracking, electronic payments, and ratings, while the B2B portal and box/Bekam delivery lines serve corporate staff transport, bulk bookings, and heavy-equipment delivery.
Pain points
Foreign-designed ride options with no cultural resonance, opaque fares, drivers squeezed by rising platform commissions, and employers and media crews with no homegrown mobility partner for staff movement.
Business model
Trip-commission economics across ride-hailing, taxi hailing, and deliveries, layered with recurring corporate transport contracts and B2B portal services.
Challenges
Uber and Careem’s scale advantages in drivers and rider habit; a regulator (the Land Transport Regulatory Commission) under pressure over driver protections and unlicensed operators; and the execution risk of carrying the Aqaba smart-transport rollout from agreement to daily operations.
Funding
- Raised: no public funding disclosed; the company operates commercially through trip revenue and corporate contracts (including Solidarity Insurance staff transport and the Union of Insurance Companies).
Latest — Oct 2025
In October 2025 the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) signed a cooperation agreement with PetraRide to launch Aqaba’s first integrated smart-transportation system — a digital app with driver tracking, arrival times, electronic payments, and ratings — framed explicitly as an implementation step of ASEZA’s strategy in line with the Economic Modernization Vision.