Dala dala

Before minibuses became widely used, a truck with benches placed in the bed was the typical Tanzanian privately owned public transport. Called chai maharagwe, these were popular and also used to transport and deliver goods along the route, c. 1990.

While dala dala may run fixed routes picking up passengers at central locations, they will also stop anywhere along their route to drop someone off or allow a prospective passenger to board.

In contrast to most of these minibuses, in Dar es Salaam some dala dala are publicly operated as of 2008.

History in Dar es Salaam

The dala dala developed as an illegal taxi in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, due to a deteriorating system of government-run public transport in an environment of rising demand for such services. Between 1975 and 1983, the year dala dala were legalized, the number of buses operating in Dar es Salaam declined by 36% while the population increased by around 80%. In 1983, the government transport company was allowed to subcontract to private entities, but due to high tariffs, this did little to substantially increase the number of licensed dala dala.

Further reforms in the late 1990s caused the number of legal minibuses to swell, and between 1991 and 1998 their numbers rose by 450%. Large amounts of pirate minibuses continued to exist, however, and in 1998 it was estimated that these comprised nearly half of all dala dala in operation. By 1998 dala dala had almost completely superseded government-run public transport; in that year, a total of 12 government-operated buses plied the streets. Around that time there were somewhere between 7,650 and 6,300 dala dala in operation.