[kictanet] Day 1 Discussions: Digital Hailing Services Regulations

[Barrack Otieno]

Dear Liz and Colleagues,

Apologies for coming late into the conversation. It is timely. I am curious
to get feedback from anyone who engaged in the Stakeholder engagement
meeting what the issues were. I believe this is a timely conversation since
mobility (I deliberately refuse to use the term transport) is key to the
prosperity of any economy.

I use the term mobility because the hailing services have gradually shifted
to Motorcycles, then Bicycles (the guys who supply food Uber Eats etc). I
see many cabs on the hailing platforms floating all over the highways,
could there be an over supply?, could there be a skewed supply (Urban,
Peri-Urban Rural). Without intentional Citizens may burn their fingers
Investing in a Sector whose returns are minimal. Remember more than 100,000
Cars were imported at the end of the year causing a logistical nightmare at
the port. A significant number of this cars were deployed to hailing
services. In short if the sector is not regulated we are certainly leaving
room for the kind of chaos we have witnessed in the Boda Boda Space.

My thoughts are we need a holistic conversation on mobility as a Nation and
how we can leverage technology to meet our mobility needs. The conversation
should not be dictated by the Multinationals that have become successful
due to availability of venture capital or facilities that enable them to
own smart devices thus creating a fertile ground for hailing services to
thrive. We also need to pay attention to the challenges local operators
have faced. Listening to a number of hailing service operators, there seems
to be a problem, they are not getting a return on investment, they are
always risking their lives working long ours to meet their targets and
endangering their lives and their passengers lives to list a few issues i
have heard. In summary, this is a timely conversation, NTSA is the right
body to convene stakeholders, the conversation needs to be driven by
Research.

On Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 12:01 AM Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 9:11 AM Liz Orembo via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Thank you Kivuva and Arya for your additional contributions.
>>
>> @kivuva, You raise a very valid point.  Carpooling was the initial idea
>> of uber and the car owner business model was the unintended outcome,
>> offering people alternative income,  and shifted a big part of the
>> traditional taxi industry to digitally hailed taxis. Current situation is
>> that people took loans to own cars and are working day and night just like
>> any other taxi guy.
>>
>
>
> This discussion has nothing to do with loans and private investors making
> bad financial decisions. In economics, garbage collecting is inevitable.
> Those with no proper use for their capital will loose it in dubious
> investments
>
> So how can we make the carpooling idea work for Kenya to ease out the
>> traffic?
>>
>
> Simple. Allow drivers ferrying empty seats to load them with humans, and
> don't legislate stringent measures that make that impossible. In fact, NTSA
> should pay private car owners to donate those empty seats for public
> transport decongestion. There are countries in this world where public
> transport is free. Movement of people leads to economic growth.
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-- 
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254733206359
Skype: barrack.otieno
PGP ID: 0x2611D86A
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