East Africa’s telecommunications giant; Safaricom, has partnered with BuuPass to launch an online bus booking service.
This service will enable travelers in the country to book and purchase bus tickets nationwide.
The service currently has five bus operators which are Modern Coast, Easy Coach, Palmers, Greenline, and East African Shuttles.
The service is also looking to bring more than 20 additional operators on board, by the end of the year.
Using the new online bus booking service’s app, customers can select a bus operator, preferred travel date and time, and reserve specific seat numbers.
Users can also reserve seats for multiple travelers. The tickets will be printed at the bus station after presentation of the purchase confirmation sent via SMS.
The two companies involved; (Safaricom and BuuPass), are aiming to take pieces of the pie that is the local intercity transport industry, which is estimated to be worth more than 100 Billion Kenyan Shillings annually, but which is also characterized by low uptake of technology and digital solutions.
Safaricom and BuuPass, have reportedly been working on the bus ticketing solution for more than a year now and have already sold more than 80,000 tickets across more than 100 routes.
The destinations which are the most popular with travelers include Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Migori and Bondo.
Safaricom’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer; Rita Okuthe, is quoted as saying, “This partnership with BuuPass seeks to extend the convenience of M-PESA by empowering our customers to book a bus ticket wherever they may be and at their luxury. We further see a prospect in linking bus companies to opportunities by providing them with a solution to manage customer ticketing and cashless payments.”
The Co-founder and Director of BuuPas; Sonia Kabra, had this to say, “We are glad to partner with Safaricom to provide travelers with an easy and flexible solution to book and manage their journey. Our platform similarly provides bus companies with a bus and parcel management system where they can manage their fleet, have control over their operational costs, and effectively reach more travelers and in turn sell more seats through our marketplace.”
Users can gain access to the service by dialing *877# or by visiting buupass.com.
Payments via M-PESA, are also accepted.
