OP/ED Taxi Wars: Uber Vs Kenya Cabs

LAURA MUKA, Staff Writer, UP Magazine - YES

The Uber vs. taxi wars have escalated to new heights. Taxi drivers are crying foul play, saying that Uber drivers are taking over their operation areas and stealing business away from them. This topic has been discussed at length in numerous avenues with many of us agreeing that the taxi drivers need to adapt or move on.

The taxi business in Nairobi has always been a volatile one, there is stiff competition and one can not just go into the public service vehicle business without inside knowledge, being a newcomer in that
scene is no easy feat. Uber is an alternative route for those who’d like to get into the transport business without all the bureaucracy. It is an avenue for people to make a living and for consumers to access a service easily.

I am all for Uber being in the Kenyan market; I believe in competition. I believe that competition enables one to evaluate and reassess their practices and to come up with solutions to be better, efficient and to better cater to the clientele. This is what conventional taxi drivers should be doing in retaliation, but instead they have resorted to vandalism and scare tactics trying to push Uber operators out of their preconceived ‘operation zones’.

For a long time conventional taxi services have held the consumers hostage as they had no other option but to use them, with their irregular pricing, tardiness and bad bedside manner. Uber and the likes of it (Easy Taxi, Pewin Cabs) are providing a service that consumers desperately need at competitive prices, and with these services favouring being digital they make use of smart technology so one can access them through an app on your phone, it’s that simple.

Pricing is a big issue on this whole taxi wars conversation. Where conventional taxis would charge you say 700 shillings for a certain distance for the same distance an Uber would charge you 350 shillings, we cannot blame Nairobians for flocking en masse to utilize Uber and recommend it to their friends and loved ones. Good service at a good price will always win out at the end of the day. Judging from the accounts of experiences that Kenyans have given about conventional taxis, this market was ripe for the Ubers of this word, and conventional taxis should take note and style up. Uber seems to be here to stay, and I for one I’m happy about it. Sentimentalism will not do anyone good in this case, as someone so aptly said online during the ‘taxi wars’ discussion “Woiye is not a business model…”

 

HELEN LANG’AT, Digital Editor, UP Magazine - NO

Here’s the thing, to the ordinary mwananchi most Kenyan taxidrivers are not exactly model citizens. They hike rates unnecessarily, based on what you look like and how you speak. They can leave you stranded if you ask them to wait outside for longer than a minute . They lie about how long they’ll take to get to your location and they almost always drive like mad men. To add insult to injury, they have now started fighting Uber drivers — physical attacks — in an attempt to hit back at Uber for killing their business.

Uber has the whole customer- experience thing down and it’s no wonder that many people are opting to use the service. However, Uber is still a giant cold hearted billion dollar company, and is after profit and cold hard cash like any business of this size. The only reason Uber can leave the Kenyan Taxi Associations tasting dust is unfair competition. Uber uses a loophole to not pay taxes here, or be bound to regulations that taxis in Kenya have to operate by, so it’s essentially cheaper for Uber to operate than normal taxis.

Uber claims not to be a taxi company, rather it is described as a mobile ride request company, and is therefore not bound by the taxi codes. This way, they can drive their taxi fares really low; it’s not just because of their brilliant efficiency and algorithms. They are also willing to take gigantic losses just to beat their competition. They posted almost a billion dollars in losses in the first half of last year and are prepared to take on even more losses in order to completely stamp out all other competition.

This is only possible because it is a Silicon Valley baby with venture capitalists funding its operations—deep pockets and aggressive strategies. Uber is a trust fund baby, and after they own the taxi rideshare market they’ll probably need to recover the money they lost by hiking their prices. They’re also digging into their driver’s cut—from 20% of the fare to 30%.

It’s not surprising that taxi drivers are not amused. Uber can skirt the rules, and they view it as an unfair advantage, and it is. Uber also has an entry barrier, just from the car you need to have. If you’re a taxi driver who took a loan on your car, you’d be struggling with debt and the introduction of an unfair system that you can neither adapt to, nor change. Where do you go from there?

In this girl’s humble opinion, we are dealing with a hydra that will pop up more heads than the customer or taxi operators will be able to slay. Monopoly in business is never a good thing.