Uber Kenya today has quietly launched a new service for its Mombasa residents that is quite idiosyncratic with the life in the Coastal town: By using tuktuks.
uberPOA is the new service for Mombasa residents and it uses tuktuks, the beloved form of service that you see all over Mombasa and they are quite popular.
This new service will be offered alongside the uberX option in the Uber app when you are about to hail a ride share service in the town. The charges are”
- Base fare: Kshs 10
- Per km charge: Kshs 15
- Per minute charge :Kshs 3
- Minimum fare: Kshs 50
Just like Nairobi’s UberCHAPCHAP!, uberPOA is limited and it is only available in a number of areas around Mombasa and its suburbs. This includes the entire Mombasa island, Nyali, Mkomani, Kongowea, Kisauni and Bamburi. The map below shows the coverage area of the new uberPOA service.
Requesting uberPOA is the same as how you’d request an uberX in Mombasa and its environs. Just launch the app, set your destination, select uberPOA icon at the bottom of the screen, confirm uberPOA and wait for your tuktuk.
Uber is quite adept when it comes to tailoring its ride sharing service to the markets it serves. The same service they are launching today is uberPOA in Mombasa but it is refered to as uberTUK in Sri Lanka (although that would have worked well in Kenya too). This could be a boon for the tuktuk drivers in the town and would make it easy to find tuktuk drivers wherever you are, which is a win for everyone.
