Competition among giant bus companies and the entry of the SGR have given rise to long-distance shuttles.
It started with only one shuttle at Mombasa’s Mwembe Tayari stage, but now the shuttles have flooded the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and other highways where only buses used to dominate.
Mercy Kendi, an assistant supervisor at Imani Coaches offices in Mombasa, says customers asking for day travel service made the company invest in the new trend.
“We were just having normal buses, but we realised we could be missing out on something when realised everybody is buying theirs,” she said during an interview at their Mombasa offices.
The company has bought six one-month-old shuttles that ply the Mombasa- Nairobi during day and night, while the buses travel only by night.
“Passengers are happy they don’t have to wait until night because the shuttles fill fast. The business is steady and sales are increasing because now we have both day and night services,” she said.
At Nairobi’s River Road, the one-stop stage for many long-distance vehicles, this writer witnessed a Mombasa-bound shuttle fill in 30 minutes.
It's a complete contrast to buses, which accumulate passengers hours before finally leaving the offices.
While some bus companies have bought shuttles to complement the bus services, some individual businessmen are tapping into the trend by buying the 14-seaters and then putting them under one sacco name to draw customers.
Time factor makes the shuttles and buses to have few stopovers, making the passenger the ultimate winner in the battle for road titans.
Listening to streamed music or educational content, watching video presentations, enjoying Internet connectivity and having a smooth ride while travelling improves satisfaction for the passenger and may birth more tech-savvy buses in future.
Edited by T Jalio