Security in Taxis: Promises of Digitalisation

T he increasing rate of urbanisation of some major cities in Cameroon is putting pressure on intra-urban transportation. As the cities expand and witness exponential population growth, the need to commute from one part of the city to another has become even more urgent. In the ab­ sence of intra-urban bus and train services, taxis remain the main mode of movement in major cities of Cameroon like Douala, Yaounde, Buea, Bafoussam etc. The modus operandi of these taxis is dominantly analogue with physical contacts and payments being the order of the day. That is, a passenger stands on the road and stops the next available taxi and pays cash on arrival at his/her destination. Most of the taxis especially in Yaounde and Douala are rickety vehicles plying the not too good roads. Apart from the very poor mechanical state of the ve­ hicles, the sector is in some sort of disarray with drivers and taxis not registered. In fact, there is hardly a data base of the number of taxis and the drivers operating in Yaounde or Douala for instance at every given time. It gives room for any Tom, Dick and Harry to jump into the road in the name of a taxi driver. This also makes way for too many clan­ destine cabs and drivers in the cities, exposing passengers to several risks. The cacophony in the taxi transportation sector opens the floodgates for insecurity. The rate of insecurity in taxis is even further compounded by the fact that cab dri­ vers in Cameroon carry many passengers from dif­ ferent backgrounds and neighbourhoods at a time. A week hardly passes by without reports of inse­ curity incidents in taxis which sometimes result to severe casualties including death, kidnappings and robbery. In fact, one needs Divine intervention to safely arrive his/her destination in a Yaounde taxi during the night. Most of these misdemeanours go on and perpetrators using township taxis go scot-free because there is no traceability. The advent of digitalisation and its application across many sectors however heralds a glimmer of hope for the intra-urban transportation sector es­ pecially with taxis. Cameroon is gradually moving towards digitalisation as the country is rolling out tech apps, GPS tracking, panic buttons and cashless payment operations for taxis services. These digital applications make taxis safer, traceable, and easier to pay for. The Ministry of Transport is piloting the GPS Trackers/Panic Buttons in Yaounde and Douala which will enable taxis to get a device linked to a control centre. The police can easily be alerted in case of distress. Also, the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development through councils is pushing for digital ID and QR...