Why I started The Busman.co , a chatbot for buses in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania

In 2019 I was simply connecting through one of East Africa’s cities when suddenly I realised, I could not locate the nearest bus station or find the quickest bus to my final destination.

Worst of all, my grasp of the local language being used in that city was too bad I could barely construct any simple sentence.

Like any body else lost in a foreign city, I was naive and not accustomed to the way things worked.

As if navigating the city itself in search of basic things like a restaurant was not an issue enough, I couldn’t also speak the native language here.

Thinking fast, I noticed a free hotspot and thought that with internet connection I could find my way around.

This however presented another challenge. After numerous search results, I found that the easiest way was to download another app, a pain point I never want.

Just like thousands of other people taking buses to their next destination, downloading another app seemed strenuous.

This is when I experienced the light bulb moment. Creating another app was not going to be the solution because clearly, this would mean that,

• You need enough phone storage and data bundles to afford downloading another app.
• You need to spend time to understand how to use the app yourself
• You need to re-install the app whenever you change your phone
• You have to wait for the app to load.

Couldn’t there be a way to quickly search a bus, compare prices and book in one go without opening an app.

After all, research shows that 7 in 10 people only use a maximum of 5–7 app on their phone regularly.

The BusMan solves all these problems.

The BusMan is a simple precise chatbot trained to speak to you via chat on Facebook messenger. No technical know how and no downloads of any app. The BusMan is your Online Travel Assistant. You simply Search for The Busman.co in your messenger, mention destination and a list of buses to your destination will appear.

Soon, you will even simply chat via whatsapp or telegram and magically get a ticket booked. This is travel reimagined.

Remember, The BusMan.co is built into Facebook, so you don’t need to download/install/uninstall anything on your phone. Just chat him on Messenger or his Facebook page and experience the magic speed of The BusMan.