Bolt switches to corporate clients only in Tanzania
Tuesday August 16 2022
A Bolt taxi. The ride-hailing company in Tanzania will be available only to corporate clients from August 17, 2022. PHOTO | FILE
Passengers requesting taxi services from ride-hailing company Bolt in Tanzania will have to find alternative means from tomorrow as its cars will only be available to corporate clients.
The firm says the regulatory environment is causing “undue pressure on the sustainability of Bolt’s operations in the country.”
In March this year, the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (Latra), which sets and approves fares for ride-hailing operators in Tanzania, issued guidelines that doubled the per-kilometre rate to Tsh900 ($0.39) and cut commissions the firms charge to 15 percent from a maximum of 33 percent.
This saw ride-hailing company Uber exiting the market in April, after six years of operations, citing a stringent regulatory environment.
Bolt says talks with Latra on the regulations have taken longer than expected.
“Bolt has no choice but to mitigate against the losses in the market until it sees a considerable improvement in the regulatory ecosystem,” it said.