On Monday, September 30, Little Cab CEO informed clients of the taxi service that the company will no longer provide shuttle services from October 1, after the government revoked their license to operate.
Little Shuttle was launched in February 2019. The service enables riders to hail a cab through a mobile phone application.
In his message, Kamal Budhabhatti said, “I have no quarrel with the authorities. They are doing their job as per what is listed in their bible.”
However, National Transport Authority Director Francis Meja says that Littlecab and SWVL had acquired Tours Service License (TSL) and were were engaging in commuter service within Nairobi contravening the terms of the Tour Service License (TSL).
Kamal added that he would have appreciated if the government had opened a dialogue with technology companies so that a framework on how the two can work to streamline the transport system in the country would have arrived at.
“I am not sure if the decision to stop us was from the authorities or they were under pressure from the public transport cartels,” Kamal went on to say in the message before apologizing to Little Shuttle's customers.
The cancellation of Little Cabs hail-a-shuttle service comes months after a Dubai-based company, SWVL was launched providing the same mass transportation services that little shuttle was providing before its licences were revoked.
Expressing his regrets on the cancellation, Kamal said that operating Little Shuttle proved that the transport in Nairobi City could be operated in a civilized manner.
The CEO who has compared the operation of the shuttling service to the operation of mobile money services holds the views that CBK did not shut down the pioneer services but came up with the legal framework as the innovation proved viable.
“I Love Kenya. Kenya is my country. We are a unique nation. We are innovative and entrepreneurial. We like trying out new things, some fail, some succeed. So challenges like these are not going to shake our dreams,” Kamal informed his clientele.
Kamal holds the view that the operation of the shuttle services have been profitable just the same way SWVL has been, enabling it to expand its market to Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria.
