Mondo Ride undercuts Uber with lower Kenya driver fees

Taxi-hailing app Mondo Ride is seeking to under-cut its rival, Uber, by charging its Kenyan drivers a lower, flat rate for the use of its technology.

Mondo Ride is charging drivers a Sh50 commission per every ride booked on its app, which is lower than the 25 per cent cut the American competitor chops off drivers’ earnings.

Mondo Ride — which also features an option of ordering a motorcycle taxi popularly known as boda boda — has not been levying Nairobi drivers a fee since starting operations in Kenya in mid-January and is banking on this flat charge to woo more drivers to the platform.

The Dubai-based Romania-founded taxi-hailing app has so far recruited about 600 drivers in Nairobi-— its first African destination. It ventured into Dar-es-Salaam in February.

Mondo Ride first launched in Saudi Arabia in 2014 and is now present in 6 cities globally including Riyadh, Jeddah, Medina and Dammam. “We charge them a fixed fee of Sh50 per ride. We started doing this a week ago. Up until then it was for free,” said Joar Lindh, head of Mondo Ride Africa.

“We don’t charge boda bodas,” he said.

Mondo Ride is yet to begin charging drivers in Dar-es-Salaam.

The flat user fee reveals that Mondo Ride’s strategy is attracting volumes, where the firm only makes more money when many journeys are made as opposed to Uber which earns from total value of trips.

“At the moment we deal with drivers directly,” said Mr Lindh, adding that they only work with cabbies who have at least two years’ experience.

Mondo Ride's software was developed by Softmills Technology International Inc.

The taxi-hailing firm is owned by Commit Network, Ison Group and a number of other investors.

Kenya is now emerging as a battleground for taxi hailing apps — where platforms such as Uber, Little Cab, Pewin, Maramoja, and Mondo Ride have pitched tent — underlining Nairobi’s position as a tech innovation hub.

Safaricom last week announced that it was partnering with Little Cabs.

Uber in March expanded to Mombasa and has already signed up a total of 1,000 drivers and logged eight million kilometres in journeys since launching in Nairobi in January 2015.

Ride-hailing platforms normally charge taxi drivers a fee to access their technology which saves them the hassle of haggling for consumers by directly connecting them to riders.