Incidentally Im sure that there are guys in wazua who do town service or long distance mats that are on murengo fulltime. Whats the trick? Is it only based on targets? regardless of whether there are travellers on the roads?

Murengo must be for 14 seater not 10 seater. Ama aji?

@Prime: Tramigo costs 20K to install, its a one time cost no monthly charges at all. Comes with a 2 year warranty. The tracking device uses a sim card which i only top up with 300 bob per month. Sim card has the 10bob per day for 200 sms bundle from Safcom. I would suggest you don't deal with the Tramigo Kenya Office. Their country manager is some idiot by the name Daniel Njau. Three of my units had failed last year coz of improper installation by his technician and the dude was evasive and not willing to honour the 24 month warranty. Had to go "psycho" with him and was sorted in a day after having waited for 2 months.

My reasons for saying Tramigo is good. Vehicle sends a trip start report if it moves for a distance of more than 300m. You can configure it to send location reports every x minutes/hours or every x km...whichever is convenient for you. If the vehicle stops for more than 15min or if it is switched off, it will send you a trip report that summarize distance, time, max speed etc. Really helped me do away with wayward drivers who couldn't be rehabilitated. I once had a driver who used to do town service in the evenings, thats when i realized trackers are a necessity not an option.

About Murengo, its a necessary evil but most drivers prefer it coz they pocket/steal more. On our route you will always get a chance to "beba kwa stage", only problem is at what time. So instead of waiting in line to beba at 4 in the evening if you are in Nairobi, you can go for a Murengo then come back coz its usually busy from the Muranga end. How i operate is give the drivers a minimum target for every Murengo trip. This i learnt by actually driving the mat myself. Every driver i get i tell them my figure for Murengo which is relatively high to what they normally bring, but still achievable. Thats usually the bait. They fall for it by complaining its too high. Then i tell them we'll go for the murengo with them. On most occasions i have hit and surpassed the figure. Those who cant put up usually quit. Please dont do this if you are not familiar with the route dynamics otherwise the driver will make a point of showing you how Murengo has no cash. When i do it, i drive the vehicle myself. My route is Muranga Nairobi. If the vehicle gets a slot kwa stage, i get anything between 2600 to 3250 one way depending on whether the fare is 200 or 250. For murengo, i insist on minimum 2k but they dont bring that always. Most bring 1800. The thugs among them can even bring you 1500 at which point i tell them "Naona ni kama kazi imekushinda". They get the point and style up. Everyone has a family to feed, they cant stand being fired. For Murengo, here is the maths, they will always get passengers to Thika, i have no conductor so thats 1400 off peak or around 2000 peak. Then thika to kenol then kenol to muranga. They always hit the 2k figure even on the days they bring me 1800. Highest i have made when i am with the vehicle on Murengo was 2400. A plus for me is no bribing of cops as part of the shuttle policy so driver never comes with stories about cops. And my vehicles are always in tip top condition, i never let a driver repair a vehicle for me. Overall i try to get a balance between a driver who "maintains the vehicle" while delivering reasonable returns.

Matatuman, when you do your murengos do you carry along a conductor? Do you search for guys to board yourself. I think the dynamics of the murang'a route are a little different. Huku embu we have so many murengo mats from both Embu and Meru. The moment you reach Makutano we have murengos from Nanyuki, Nyeri, Karatina, Naromoru, Kutus etc. The moment you fika Makutano Muran'ga mats join the bandwagon. Thika the same thing. Lakini the cookie will soon crumble. Cars will get less and less especially if they indeed stop the registration of 14 seaters and below. Those who will have maintained their mats will stand to reap over time. By the way, We guys should hook up some time. Hebu tu-organize a ka-matatu mbuzi...

@jerry. Glad to hear that things went on well. Congratulations mzee

I dont carry a conductor, usually rely on those roadside makangas, we call them "kamagira". But I usually leave that to the drivers discretion.

Jerry. Dont worry. Majority of the guys pay beyond 2M for those cars. I hope it was a manual coz That price is a little high for an auto. The initial price from the auction was fair but you got the first month of registration wrong. You only get from Jan till the current month Plus 1. i.e. If we are in feb you should only buy Jan, feb or march car as the first month of registration, ans of course needless to say is that you only buy from the last allowed year of registration i.e. currently at 2007. Lakini usijali. you will come out sharper through the experience. Incidentally im informed that even on the embu route all shuttles below KBB have been told to remove them as shuttles and all 14 seaters below KBC have also been told to chomoa them. If IBC hasnt withdrawn the auction password keep it very well. Its the biggest asset you will have when purchasing a car in future. Even if not with IBC. Sawa if you are unable to get it registered guys will help out on what next. I also had to think on what next after I had been told it wouldnt be registered. Alternatives ziko.

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@Jerry Looks like both IBC and KRA had you for dinner. But dont worry its a learning experience. I am keen on how the TLB license goes plus if there has been any change at all with regards to the documents required to register a 14 seater. Whats your route?
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Mau-Meru-Nairobi.
It looks pricey due to "just tax" for a 2007/08 van.

Fully agree. Current levels for 2007 autos has gone back to ranges of around 13000. So sio mbaya. Looking forward to learning from you too. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle! Another one is that you can never beat the pioneer meaning that I appreciate those who "openned by eyes".

Maybe I am out of touch with the market, last vehicle I imported arrived in December. My psychological limit for an auto box then was USD 9150. I also managed to get a clean petrol box for USD 8800. In the first instance I got the van from Autocom Japan. In the second it was from Tomisho. We have about four more boxes in our shuttle that came from Tomisho with prices between 9000 and 9500. Mileage of the said vehicles range between 160k and 220 k as at the time of importation. I generally look for vehicles with mileage around 150k plus or minus 10.

Some starting point...