Pata Cab is a platform for enabling travelers around Nairobi to get around the city easily by contacting the nearest trusted cab drivers. “Pata” is swahili for find/get; the platform enables the users get cabs. Pata Cab was founded by Antony Wainaina Kariuki, a student from Strathmore University, with assistance from Jochen Baumeister, a German consultant and project manager.
Speaking to TechMoran, Kariuki said, “The story of Pata Cab was thought of when one of our partners who had recently landed in Nairobi was conned by a cab driver. The amount he had paid for the distance he traveled was more than double what normal prices for the same distance would be.
The platform is still in development phase with only the beta version running but it aims to be the first automated cab hailing application in the city where users will be able to locate the nearest cab drivers from their position and “e-hail” the cab.
With a number of cab hailing apps in the country already, and Silicon Valley’s Uber launching soon in the country, Pata Cab say competition only comes from private cab companies who have their own systems of assigning their own drivers to clients. Their system hovwever will also include drivers of privately owned cab drivers to give them more clients.
For now the platform will provide the contacts of drivers around common areas in Nairobi but its future plans to have a cab-booking platform online. At the moment, its developing its automated system and trying to get cab drivers to trust the system.
The project is currently supported by Jochen Baumeister.