Uber Technologies may roll out a new service in Kenya to help users book seats on minibuses that ply the streets of the congested capital, if tests on the product in Egypt and Mexico prove successful, a company executive said on Wednesday.
Uber estimates that more than a third of Kenyans in Nairobi use the often crowded minibuses, known as matatus, as their main form of transport around the city, Uber’s East Africa General Manager Loic Amado told Reuters.
“We want to be part of the transportation ecosystem in Nairobi and matatus are a big part of how people move around,” he said, adding the feature would be available on the Uber app.
The company already operates Uber Pool and Uber Express Pool in cities such as London and New York, so taxi drivers can carry more passengers heading to the same or nearby destinations.
The service that may be rolled out in Kenya is being tested in Egypt’s capital Cairo and the Mexican city of Monterrey.
This will not work for short hop matatus in the capital. High commissions(25%) will lead to either an increase in the fare charges levied on passengers for owners to earn what they did initially.
Also brings questions.
Nairobi mayanga ecosystem is very disorganized. How will they handle waiting for passengers since matatus don’t stop for a predefined number of mins per stop unlike in developed countries
Hehe. Handling charge backs is gonna be a nightmare
This would work wonders if they launched with long distance matatus and buses. They would easily beat the ticketing systems used by majority of the large buses plus this sector is usually so organized so it would be easy for Uber to plug and play their application without having to charge the ecosystem of how things work.
