Techies’ matatu ticketing app in line for Sh101m Clinton funding

Technology has proven to be one of the top disrupters in the Kenyan public transportation sector, case and point being the taxi business.

Following the growing popularity of the taxi apps, a group of young individuals are replicating the same concept, only this time for the matatu segment.

Wycliffe Omondi, Leslie Ossete and three other colleagues have come up with the idea of digitising booking, pre-payment and on board payment of fare for commuters in Kenya.

The offline app works via a short code (USSD) which prompts the user with a menu of instructions to select from.

“Magic Bus is basically an organised text-based ticketing service that allows commuters to pre-book buses using mobile phones and pay using mobile money,” says Omondi.

The idea was borne out of a challenge for the Hult Prize, funded by Bill Clinton, whose contest this year was the creation of a better model to connect people to goods and services in crowded urban spaces.

The team of five is in line for a $1 million (Sh101 million) grant to fund their application. They were selected as one of the six finalists for the prize, which will be announced later in the month. “In Africa, where Ossete and I are from, we have seen the biggest challenge was in public transportation,” he says.

It was from this that the group of current and former students of Earlham College in the US settled on the idea.
“We opted for a short code rather than an app to ensure everyone who has a phone can access not just those who have smartphones,” says Omondi.

The short code works by requesting the user to select their route, pick-up and drop-off points before offering the selection of matatus that are available and the estimated pick-up time.

Once a user selects their vehicle of preference, they proceed to pay and move to the bus stop within the expected arrival time of the vehicle.

In addition to the pre-booking and prepayment, the commuters can track the position of the vehicle in real time and also those already on board could pay for their fare via the same service.

The system has currently been running on the Ongata-Rongai route in Nairobi where the Ongataline Transporters Limited, a fleet management company, has enlisted its vehicles.

“Our route is quite diverse and has several universities. The students are tech-savvy and therefore they are a good target market for the system,” says James Kariuki, fleet manager at Ongataline.

The Rongai route has gained notoriety for the loud, colourful vehicles fitted with screens and fancy lighting, popular with the student population from the four universities along the route.

Common practice for the route has been calling the crew to pre-book seats or to find out the location of the vehicle as they ‘time’ it to commute home.

“The crew set the price and number of seats they want available online using the tablet computers provided,” explains Omondi adding that once the set number of seats are taken, the matatu becomes unavailable for booking.

“For the commuters, there is also the added advantage of the price being fixed and therefore they are not affected by price surges, which are common on most Kenyan routes during rush hour or when it rains,” he says.

The service is one that the matatu crew appreciate, says Kariuki. This is due to the fact that all payments received on the platform are withdrawn from a mobile money agent at any point.

“Matatu industry is a cash intensive business and there is a need to have money on a daily basis for the owners who need to pay the crew, fuel, pay for parking and other expenses,” he says.

Challenges

The cashless system in the matatu business failed to take off last year despite a number of players who had introduced products for the service. According to Kariuki, the failure was due to the fact that matatu owner was required to visit the bank or agents to collect the money, usually on a monthly basis which was not viable.

Magic Bus, usually managed by the crew, allows them to send the money to the owner directly from the mobile device or to withdraw it from an agent and deliver it in cash.

However, the challenge the app’s developers face is training the crew on how to use the tablet computers. Each trip requires the crew to adjust the fare and the number of seats available accordingly.

The crew are also obligated to ensure that commuters who have booked seats get them and they are required to refund the fare if they fail to adhere. If the passenger is late to arrive at the bus stop or changes travel plans, they lose the money that they had paid.

The team has been working to get long distance travel companies on board to cut the need for commuter to walk to bus offices to make bookings and payments.

Uber, Taxify, Teke Taxi and Little Cab, just to mention a few of the players in the industry, have been simplifying and lowering costs for commuters to use cabs to get from point A to point B.