Faras sets minimum ride cost at Ksh.240 amid taxi drivers’ protest

Kenyan online taxi-hailing company Faras on Tuesday said it had set the minimum cost for rides at Ksh.240.

This follows weeks of protests by local digital taxi drivers who complain that the prices per kilometre on the ride-hailing apps have gone down despite skyrocketing fuel prices and the cost of living.

It has led drivers to charge higher fees than the rates listed by platforms such as Faras, Uber and Bolt, as well as reported cases of passenger harassment.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to increase all our minimum prices [to] Ksh.240 and also review our general prices upwards by a significant percentage. We have also set our commission rate to match the maximum allowed by the NTSA (National Transport and Safety Authority) effective immediately,” Faras General Manager Allan Maimbu told a press conference in Nairobi.

NTSA has capped the maximum commissions payable to digital taxi-hailing apps by drivers at 18 per cent.

“To ease the impact of the price changes, we’ll continue to offer discounts to our customers, and as always, our drivers will receive the balance for discounted trips immediately after the trip ends, directly in their wallet,” Maimbu said.

But while drivers, through unions like the Organisation of Online Drivers Kenya (OOD),  have been pressuring the ride-hailing companies to increase their base fare to Ksh.300, he said they held discussions with those on their platform and agreed on the move.

“We warmly invite our fellow industry players to join us in addressing the drivers' concerns. By collaborating, we can create a fairer and more sustainable future for drivers and passengers and make Kenya a more welcoming place for the ride-hailing business,” added Maimbu.

Among the digital taxi drivers’ issues have been a lack of inclusion in the pricing decisions, heavy taxation and alleged slow response to security complaints on some of the apps, especially the foreign-owned ones.

Top of the digital taxi services operating locally are the Kenyan-owned Faras and Little, the US company Uber, Bolt from Estonia and the Indian mobility company Yego.

In 2022, Uber and Bolt reviewed trip prices after the Transport Ministry capped the commission paid to the companies at 18 per cent, down from 25 per cent.

But the drivers complain that on top of the 18 per cent, the government takes another 16 per cent of their commission as VAT diminishing their returns.