Little Cabs - Letter from CEO on price adjustments.

[LEFT]My Beloved Little Riders,
After a deep thought, we’re rolling out a minor increase adjustment to our fares at Little, from 30KES to 35KES in Nairobi starting today. I know this is not the best of the news for you. But, I would like to share some of my sentiments and rational behind this decision.

Little is Kenyan, I am a Kenyan. I know for a fact that life in our city is not that easy. I want you to see this decision from the side of our drivers. For him to take you around safely, he will have to fuel his car, keep it clean, ensure that car is roadworthy with necessary documents and Insurances. On an average he needs a minimum of about 3,000 KES a day to run his business. Anything above 3,000 KES is his profit. Let us go by the bare minimum he makes a profit of 2,000 KES per day. This means that he needs to make a a minimum of 5,000 KES a day. Mind well with 5,000 KES a day, he is barely making ends meet, after paying the cost of running and maintaining the vehicle.

Let’s do some reverse engineering. With our competitors price strategy and price wars, they pay as low as 29 KES per KM. They take between 15% and 25% commissions. That means he is basically earning about 24 KES a KM. So, for him to earn 5,000 KES a day, he needs to do about 20 trips. On an average if each ride is for half an hour, he needs to be driving for about 10 hours. This is the Trip time, the time when he is not on trip and taking rounds looking for a Trip is added. Based on our data, a driver must drive over 12 hours on average every day to be profitable at the rates that other apps are giving him. I bet with this load, his family life goes for a toss.

I run Little, and as much as I love my rides, and want to give them the most economical mobility, I feel it’s just not fair for to our drivers. With these low earning, you must have noticed that Drivers from other apps have started giving you bad experience. Some of them even end up having accidents because of working overtime. Some of them involve in cheating riders. Not sure if you read in the recent news on drivers conning riders by overcharging.

As a Kenyan, I want to be sure that I don’t take our fellow drivers for granted. I humbly request you, our Riders to accept this minor price adjustment, which will go a long way in bridging the gap towards a better driver welfare.

Of late I have been have been going around various places of Nairobi and meeting with thousand and thousand of drivers. I have spent time to hear them; I have spent time to be part of their life, to share their joy and sorrow. I have their commitment that they would give you premium experience when you take Little.

And ye, so that I don’t spoil your weekends, our weekend offers to bring you discounted rides at 25 KES on Friday, Saturday and Sunday still remains. These discounts come from our pocket, as Drivers would earn their full income.

While this increase takes effect, Little still remains the most reliable hailing platform in Kenya.

God Bless Kenya!

Kamal Budhabhatti | Chief Executive Officer, Little.
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Hio essay ni mrefu sana, mwambie alete summary

And that’s how they will end up losing customers and they will have to restrategise. Someone earning 1k a day minimum is not badly off.

Jamaa is literally begging haha. Akwende uko, tunahamia taxify. A taxi usually has 3 hailing apps. So hiyo upuzi yote ametuandikia ni ufala

Taxify ata dereva huwa haogi

:DKamal ‘met thousands and thousands of drivers’

Haha. Mbebee sabuni next time. Hii little cab ni ya mababi wa westlands na kinoo. Uber and taxify ndio kusema east kwa mabeast.

Uber huwa spot on. But I still insist someone earning 1-2k daily sio mbaya sana.

Boss , taxi drivers are moving from Taxify and Uber .

We like exploitation, we want it cheap and of good quality at the expense of others. Seriously even if it is your own car, is it possible for you to fuel and maintain it at ksh 15 per km. It is that low considering that most of the time the cost of return trip is for the driver to meet. Africans can’t even tip for a good service to motivate to driver, actually sometimes they want to steal from him or her. We are like mpigs and our corrupt officials it is only that we lack that opportunity to satisfy our greed.

Too many taxi’s for the same no of users. From uber, little, taxify and others. Same cake but taxi numbers increases. That and fact that the car has to be maintained, fueled and revenue is shared between driver and car owner.

It’s [COLOR=rgb(226, 80, 65)]very difficult ([SIZE=3][FONT=courier new]NOT IMPOSSIBLE[/FONT][/SIZE]) to make it in business by being fair and honest…

I hate people who exaggerate and just lie to you plainly.

Na bado the budget car is also now on little cab and the siblings wamekuwa imported.
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Not far from the truth.For the past couple of weeks he has meet a big number in their areas since now the drivers have create zones and each zone has leaders and they have been having zonal meetings.

I have a honda stream, it has a fuel economy of 13KM/L (for URBAN DRIVE)… this is roughly ksh.8 / KM…
I did the same math with UBER CHAP CHAP…that Suzuki does 20KM/L (for URBAN DRIVE)… this is roughly ksh.5 / KM

Are u saying with 60k u can’t afford to fuel and maintain ur car monthly?

Hapo kwa return trips ndio shida iko. Taxi hailing apps do not envisage an empty return trip. The whole idea was to pick another client from the drop off point of the last one. Part of the problem is that coverage is still very poor outside the city and the app is yet to be embraced fully in those areas what with guys relying on karura and bodabodas.

You’re arguing like 1960 makanga. That 2k is a hypothetical number which to attain you have to be on the road for more than 12 hours a day.

Sawa dere, umeskika