This morning taxis were on strike protesting the Shs120,000/- charged by KCCA per month. The taxi drivers want to pay Shs70,000/- or if it's 120,000/- then it should be paid at the rate of Shs4,000 per day as opposed to paying the entire amount in one installment.

Passengers were stranded, salon cars were over loaded and boda boda's were making a killing from this. Within minutes of that drama, the orange 'darlings' came from no where in a convoy of taking passengers at a cost of Shs800 in a distance where taxis charge Shs1,500/-

The buses have not yet started operating officially but because of the strike, they were allowed to transport passengers. To this, the buses did not even have registration plates implying that the move is temporary as they still have to sort out a few issues as far as the Pioneer Easy Bus contract is concerned.

The conductors in these buses are called Stewards and each bus has two of them, one coordinates those entering and issues them with a receipt after they have paid and the other collects receipts from passengers once a passenger has got to their destination.

Taxis are flexible when it comes to pricing because you will be charged based on the distance but the only complaint in the pioneer bus was from those passengers who were travelling short distances and still had to pay the same price like those doing long distances.

Short of that being day one, the buses were clean, no radio but that aside, the driver and his two stuarts were smartly dressed in there white short sleeved shirts which were already succumbing to the Kampala dust, orange neckties and a grey trousers.

Luggage
If you have luggage and you get on to this bus, you must be prepared to carry it and in fact the stuart said that those with luggage won't be allowed on board. So if you are carrying a dirty bag, you should be prepared to sit with it on your white clothes..!

It was inevitable that these buses had to have policemen on board because the taxi drivers were actually warning them for having joined the market and were threatening to do harm to the buses, short of that, the majority of the passengers using the buses were very happy and welcomed the service with open arms.

Related: Inside the Pioneer Bus