Launched in beta sometime last year, MARAMOJA Transport has joined Kenya’s taxi culture with a unique promise to change the way Kenyans hail their cabs forever.
Calling itself the country’s own and the world’s only socially-powered transport app Jason Eisen says MARAMOJA Transport is unique because Nairobi is unique.
“This is because Nairobi doesn’t have a taxi market, we have a taxi culture. Nairobi’s taxi culture is built around values like trust, loyalty, and relationships. Finding a ride in Nairobi has never been a problem, it’s about finding a trusted ride, quickly, reliably, and at a fair prices,” Eisen told TechMoran.
“We, Nairobians, want to ride with (and drive for) the people we know and the people we know we can trust. Trust in this context is really only determined by who we know directly and who our friends know, not by credentials that can be easily obtained on River Road.” he added.
Just like Uber & Easy Taxi, MARAMOJA Transport do background and credential checks and even go a step further by uploading images of all driver credentials into the app so users can see them because personal trust is that thing that really matters to people.
Users need no credit card to sign up and MARAMOJA Transport accepts MPESA and Airtel Money. It’s prices are fixed, no arguing with the driver and prices based only on trip origin and destination so users pay the same every time, rain or shine, day or night, jam or not.
“Our Web app works across all smartphone platforms as well as from your desktop/laptop. Our Android App is in the play store as well. We are really excited to launch publicly at todays Tech Bash.” said Eisen just moments before the iHub bash yesterday.
MARAMOJA Transport joins Uber, Easy Taxi and a number of several traditional cab companies trying to serve the Nairobi passengers. Uber Kenya is using events to sign up as many new users as possible while Easy Taxi has decided to hire sales people to go door to door with vouchers to get more people to download its app. One of the challenges MARAMOJA will have will be to convince people that its not just another taxi hailing startup and it should be ready to show users how unique and better it’s than its fixed price point.