Bolt is one of the leading e-taxi companies in Kenya. It also offers services in Tanzania, but that is about to change in the coming days.
This follows a move by the nation’s Transport regulator the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (Latra), which has issued new standards and transport rates for e-cab apps.
The development has since seen customers pay more for e-taxi services. Riders now pay twice the amount they used to per kilometre. At the same time, Latra has also reduced the amount of commission the companies charge from 33% to 15%.
These changes have also seen rivals such as Uber leave the Tanzania market.
However, Bolt is hanging on, but will only serve corporate clients. This, according to Bolt, has been done to ease of pressure from regulators.
The exit of Uber and Bolt’s choice to drop ordinary riders for corporate entities means that the Tanzania market has little e-cab presence.
Uber, on the other hand, has been expanding its turf in Kenya. Just two months ago, it expanded its services to additional towns in Kenya, including Kisumu, Eldoret, and Naivasha.
Bolt has also been making its presence known in Kenya following the opening of its regional hub in Nairobi.
The hub is stationed at Riverside Drive and serves as a host for top managers running operations in the continent. It also follows a recent trend where major global tech corporations such as Visa, Google, and Microsoft have been setting up regional offices and innovation hubs in Kenya.
In July, e-cab rates were adjusted in Kenya after an intervention from Kenya’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
All e-taxi driver partners now remit 18 percent trip commission to their digital taxi operators.
“The commission which shall be paid by a transport network driver or a transport network owner to the transport network company, which shall not exceed eighteen percent of the total earnings of the trip,” stated the new regulations.
