Craft Silicon CEO Kamal Bubhadhatti, Safaricom’s Bob Collymore and a
taxi driver Hellen Wanjiku at the launch of Little in July 2016. FILE
PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- Little Shuttle will allow riders to book a seat and board the 33-seater minibuses at specific times of the day. The new service targets riders who would otherwise use their vehicles to move around.
- Little is running its pilot on Kangemi and Nextgen route in an undertaking that the firm says it is implementing with the help of National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to ensure they comply with the law.
Kenyan-owned taxi-hailing app Little is set to rival Uber in
rolling out a mass transport service in the new year that will see its
users book seats on minibuses plying various city routes.
Little
Shuttle will allow riders to book a seat and board the 33-seater
minibuses at specific times of the day. The new service targets riders
who would otherwise use their vehicles to move around.
Uber
in November announced its intention to launch a similar service within
Nairobi once tests on the product in Egypt and Mexico prove successful.
Little is running its pilot on Kangemi and Nextgen route in an
undertaking that the firm says it is implementing with the help of
National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to ensure they comply
with the law.
“We expect to fine-tune the platform as
we pilot and customise it further to solve real city problems. For our
pilot and also as we go live, we would be working with partners who have
clean bigger buses with a seating capacity of 33 and above,” said Kamal
Budhabhatti, the founder of Craft Silicon that owns Little.
“The
cost (of Little Shuttle) once we go live would be higher than a Matatu
cost and we are not competing with them, rather letting Riders who would
otherwise be using their own vehicles for city and work movements,”
said Budhabhatti.
Little and Uber are targeting a big
chunk of the capital’s commuters who use often unpredictable public
service vehicles as a form of transport around the city. The Uber Bus
function, Uber’s East Africa General Manager Loic Amado told Reuters,
would also be available on the app.
Once the service is
proven in Nairobi, Amado said it could be expanded to Kenya’s
neighbours, such as Uganda’s capital Kampala and Dar es Salaam in
Tanzania.
The idea would be to apply it to vehicles carrying up to 16 people.
“We
want to be part of the transportation ecosystem in Nairobi and matatus
are a big part of how people move around,” Amado said.
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