‘Halan’ app hails tuk tuks, motorbikes, tricycles in slums

CAIRO - 5 April 2018: “Halan” (Instantly), the Cairo-based ride-sharing app has started an outdoor campaign in the midst of the running conflict between ride-hailing applications, Uber and Careem, and the Egyptian authorities.

The GPS-based application, Halan was launched during the last quarter of 2017. Halan is a ride-sharing app for tuk-tuks (three-wheeled-vehicles), motorcycles and tricycles in the slum areas of Cairo.

In mid-March, it expanded across Egypt to Giza, Alexandria, Minya, Luxor and Qalyubia governorates. Moreover, it has rolled out a national advertising campaign starring Mahmoud El-Leithy singing while navigating through Cairo’s streets on a tuktuk.

Once you download the application using your Android mobile, you can take a ride using a tuk-tuk, motorcycle or tricycle with affordable prices. The application comes only in Arabic to make it easier for people who don’t speak English as a second language.

The quality of the application’s performance has not been clearly evaluated yet; users of Halan differ on their comments on the application’s Facebook page. While some users hail the application and its affordable prices, some others said that it is not available in most areas and the captains are not professional in manner.

Many other users expressed that tuk-tuks should not spread since tuk-tuks show the backwardness of countries and its people.

In spite of tuk-tuks being viewed as useful transportation means in the narrow streets of slum areas, they also impose a threat in Egyptian street as many deadly accidents have been caused because of them during the past few years.

In 2014, the Egyptian government decided to ban tuk-tuks for a year, as it had been used in crimes and terrorist attacks. However, they did not succeed at keeping track of the entire bulk of tuk-tuks that have been finding their way in Egypt since the early 2000s.

In a statement from Al-Masry Al-Youm from March last year, Deputy Interior Minister for Public Traffic Department Adel Zaki said "around two million tuk-tuks are on the streets today," adding that only 109,000 of them are licensed.

No accurate estimate was made of the number of unlicensed vehicles.