The Kenyan Taxi industry is set for another round of cutthroat price wars after Little Cab announced a reduction of its price by almost a third.
With the new slash, many commuters will soon be opting for Taxis home as fares get almost the same level with the peak hour prices of some matatus.
Making the announcement at the end of last week, the Safaricom cab hailing app service revealed its new price per Kilometer will be Ksh.30 down from Ksh.55.
There will be no flat base charge while the left time charges remain at Ksh.4 per minute.
This move sees Little Cab become the cheapest service in the industry a move that will see several other players react following a similar situation mid this year by Uber.
Uber triggered the first price following the entry into the market by Little Red in July.
Given that Little Cab was charging 5 shillings less than Uber at the time at Ksh.60, was the highest in the market. It slashed its prices down to Ksh.35 per Kilometer and the transit charges from Ksh.4 to Ksh.3 but still retained the base charge of 100.
Small players in the cab hailing app service had to react to with Taxify dropping its price per Kilometer in August by 10 shillings to Ksh.40 and the transit charges to Ksh.4 per minute down by one but like Uber it also retained the 100 base charge.
Another hailing service Mondo Ride followed suit in September dropping it price to Ksh.45 Ksh. 58, charging Ksh.4 per minute while retaining a base price of Ksh.100.
This left Safaricoms Little Cabs as the most expensive in the industry counting against it in the competition with Uber. With its new prices Little Cabs is considerably cheaper than any of its rivals.
Price wars can only go low to a certain level before everyone misses out on the profits. The companies will soon have to get innovative in order to retain and acquire new customers.
From discounts to loyalty points and long distance packages. In the near future the bigger players could end up acquiring small companies or rivals will merge to strengthen position in a fiercely competitive segment.
Currently Uber has 1,600 driveres and averages 10,000 trips a day. Little Cabs has about 1,000 drivers and averages 3, 500 trips a day.