(From Left) Craft Silicon CEO Kamal Budhabhatti, KenolKobil Group MD David Ohana, and Safaricom's head of enterprise business unit Rita Okuthe at the signing of an agreement to sell fuel at a lower price to Little Cab drivers on September 30, 2016. Photo/COURTESY
Digital taxi hailing service Little Cab’s parent company Craft Silicon, has announced a new feature that is set to raise stakes in the taxi service sphere.
Users of the four-month-old service can now pay for someone else’s ride with the release of the sambaza option in the app’s menu. This is in addition to other services such as discounted airtime purchases while on a Little cab.
While launching the new feature, Craft Silicon’s CEO Kamal Budhabhatti also announced a new partnership with KenolKobil service stations in which driver partners will enjoy subsidized fuel and petroleum product costs.
“Improving our customers’ experience, and empowering our drivers economically remains twin key objective for us,” Budhabhatti said on Friday at the signing of the agreement.
He added, “Through this partnership, we hope to significantly lower the drivers’ costs of operation.”
Under the terms of the new partnership, drives will receive a K-Card, KenoKobil’s fuel card to pay for fuel and other services.
David Ohana, the group managing director of the KenolKobil chain of outlets expressed optimism that the new partnership would provide a mutually beneficial environment for both drivers and users of the service.
Ohana added that KenolKobil has also waived all application and administrative cost for Little in the acquisition of the fuel card.
“This is meant to improve their experience at KenolKobil service stations across the country,” he said.
Safaricom’s Director of Enterprise Business, Rita Okuthe said the communication solutions provider is looking to create more conducive environments that allow for such partnerships to thrive.
“In the case of Little, we are pleased that it is empowering drivers, who work hard each day to deliver satisfactory services to our riders,” Okuthe said.
Since its introduction in July, the Little application has been downloaded over 50,000 times across the IOS Android and Windows app stores and has 3000 registered drivers, more than half of who are active.
