inDrive in Kenya for car owners: commission, requirements and the daily amount (2026)

inDrive is the odd one out among Kenya's ride-hailing apps. Uber, Bolt and Little set the fare; on inDrive the passenger suggests it and the driver decides. It also takes a smaller cut than the others. If your driver wants to run your car on inDrive, here is what changes for the car, for the driver and for the daily amount you collect.

How inDrive works

inDrive arrived in Nairobi in June 2019 (then called inDriver). The model has not changed since: the passenger enters the trip and offers a price, and nearby drivers see the request. Each driver can accept the offer, ignore it, or counter with a higher price. The passenger picks from the drivers who respond.

When it received its operating licence from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) in June 2023, the company said drivers can accept, counter or reject an offer without penalties or fees. Refusing a bad offer is part of the system.

What this means in practice:

• Fares move with the bargaining. A driver who knows the city and counters well can do better than the fixed-fare apps on some trips. A driver who accepts every low offer will work long hours for little.
• The driver knows the price before accepting. It is agreed up front, not worked out by a rate card at the end.
• Income is less predictable day to day. There is no rate card to check a driver's figures against.

The inDrive service fee in Kenya

inDrive calls its cut a service payment rather than a commission. Its help centre says it is a percentage of each fare that "varies, depending on your current location", and that a driver has to be verified to see the exact figure for their area.

For Kenya, the figure reported is 9.99% of the fare, excluding VAT. Tech-ish reported it when inDrive was licensed in June 2023, and a January 2026 Nairobi driver guide gave the same 9.99% excluding VAT. Business Daily, reporting the same licence, put inDrive's commission at between 5% and 10% depending on the market. We use 9.99% because it is the Kenya-specific figure. Ask the driver to show you the rate in their app, since inDrive itself only shows it to verified drivers.

VAT in Kenya is 16% on taxable services. If the fee is 9.99% before VAT, the real cost to the driver is about 11.6% of the fare:

That is the same day's fares at both rates. The catch is that inDrive fares are bargained, so the same day's driving may not bring in the same KSh 5,000. A lower fee only helps if the fares hold up.

For comparison, Kenya's 2022 ride-hailing rules capped commission at 18%. In September 2026 the High Court suspended that cap. See what the ruling means for owners.

How the driver pays inDrive

This is the biggest practical difference. On inDrive the driver keeps a prepaid balance in the app, and the service payment is charged automatically from that balance during the trip: as the driver arrives, calls the passenger through the app, or taps "I'm here". If the passenger does not show up, or cancels before the driver says they are on the way, inDrive refunds the fee to the balance, usually within six hours.

The driver tops up the balance from the Wallet in Driver mode. When inDrive launched in Nairobi, rides were cash only. Either way, the passenger pays the fare to the driver, not to inDrive. So there is no weekly payout to wait for. The fare is with the driver the moment the trip ends.

Vehicle requirements

inDrive does not publish a Kenya-specific car list. Its help centre says it has no list of approved models, and that the maximum age of the car depends on the location. The driver sees the rule for Nairobi or Mombasa when they register.

The basic rules that inDrive says cover most locations:

• the car must be the driver's own, or rented in the driver's name
• at least four doors, with 5 to 8 seats including the driver's
• not titled as salvage, non-repairable, rebuilt or similar

The first rule matters to owners. Your car is in your name, not the driver's. If a driver runs it on inDrive, put the hire in writing in the driver's name. Our driver agreement tool gives you one in a few minutes. Keep a copy of it with the logbook copy you hand over.

If the car also runs on Uber, it has to meet Uber's stricter age limits. In 2026 that means 2016 or newer for Chapchap, and 2018 or newer for Comfort and XXL. A car that passes Uber's rules is the safer buy, because it can run on more than one app. Check a car's year here, or read the full vehicle requirements.

Driver registration and documents

Registration happens inside the inDrive app: open Driver mode, choose Driver, pick car, and upload the documents the app asks for. inDrive says verification usually takes up to 24 hours. The most common reasons for rejection are blurry photos, expired documents, wrong details, wrong pictures, and photographing a photo instead of the original.

inDrive does not publish a Kenya document list outside the app. Expect to need the same core papers as the other apps: the driver's licence and National ID, the car's registration details, and photos of the car. Two things are your job as owner, whatever app the driver uses:

• PSV insurance, not private. A private policy may refuse a claim from an accident on a paid trip. Price PSV cover with the PSV insurance calculator.
• Copies, not originals. Hand the driver copies of the logbook and insurance for the upload, and keep the originals.

What it means for your daily amount

For an owner, inDrive changes three things.

1. The driver has cash in hand every day. Fares go straight to the driver, so there is no week-end payout to wait for. "The money hasn't come in yet" does not apply. A daily amount fits inDrive better than a weekly one.

2. Takings are harder to check. Because every fare is negotiated, you cannot estimate a fair day from distance and a rate card. Ask for the weekly trip summary from the driver's app, and set the daily amount on what the car actually earns. The daily amount calculator helps you test whether a figure leaves the driver a living.

3. The balance is the driver's problem, but it becomes yours. inDrive takes its fee from the prepaid balance, so a driver has to keep it topped up to keep working. Agree up front that keeping the balance topped up is the driver's cost, like fuel.

Many drivers run inDrive alongside Uber or Bolt, switching to whichever app has trips. That is normal. Your agreement should be about the daily amount and the car's care, not about which app the driver opens.

Where Gariboss helps

Gariboss does not connect to inDrive. It does not need to. You set a daily amount for each car, and the driver pays it straight into your own M-Pesa till. Gariboss matches each payment to the car automatically, skips rest and garage days, keeps a running balance the driver can see, and sends you a WhatsApp report every evening of who paid and who is short. It works the same whether the driver earned the money on inDrive, Uber or Bolt.