What Is Intra Cab? How Suriname's New Ride-Hailing App Works

Getting a taxi in Paramaribo has always run through the centrales. You call 1680 for Ulstrel or 1688 for Hertog, or Tourtonne's from the Tourtonnelaan, the centrale quotes its tariff and sends one of its own drivers. It works, and it has worked for decades. It also means that one organisation sets the price, chooses the driver, and keeps a share of what you pay.

Intra Cab is a ride-hailing app that works the other way round. You post your trip, independent drivers nearby each send their own price in SRD, and you choose — the cheapest, the closest, or the driver you've ridden with before. No centrale tariff, no surge, and no commission: the driver keeps everything you pay.

The app works in Dutch as well as English (tap the flag at the top to switch), and there's a Dutch version of much of this blog, starting with taxi bestellen in Paramaribo: taxicentrale of app?. Here's how Intra works in Paramaribo specifically.

A marketplace, not a centrale

Intra Cab doesn't own cars or employ drivers. Drivers sign up independently — some already drive for a centrale, some have a car and want evening trips, some run a bus or a brommer — and quote on the requests they want. Riders see every quote side by side and pick one.

That is the real difference from a centrale, and it cuts both ways. A centrale gives you one tariff immediately; Intra gives you a short wait and several prices to choose from. A centrale sends its own vetted driver; Intra shows you each driver's photo, vehicle and rating and lets you decide.

How a Paramaribo trip works

Post the trip. Set your pickup and destination — the Centrum to Blauwgrond for a warung dinner, Flora to Zorg en Hoop for the morning flight, Rainville across the Wijdenboschbrug to Meerzorg — and choose a car, a moto-bike or a bus. You'll see a reference estimate so you know what a reasonable figure looks like.

Drivers quote. Drivers near you are notified and see the pickup, the drop-off and the passenger count before they price anything. A driver who knows the Indira Gandhiweg is crawling at one o'clock when the schools let out prices that in; one who happens to be two streets away can come in sharp.

You choose. Each offer shows the driver's name, photo, car and rating, and how far away they are. Accept one and follow the car on the map; you get a separate alert when the driver is actually outside.

Pay the driver. Cash in SRD at the end of the trip, directly to the driver. Intra never touches the money, so there is no card, no wallet, and nothing to top up.

Car, moto-bike or bus

Car — the everyday choice for anything from a short hop across the Centrum to the 45-kilometre run down the Martin Luther Kingweg to Johan Adolf Pengel airport at Zanderij, which is worth booking ahead rather than hoping for a car at the door.
Moto-bike — one passenger, helmets for both, best for beating the Kwattaweg at rush hour. Suriname has plenty of brommers but few of them carry passengers for hire, so bike offers are rarer than car offers on the app.
Bus — a group travelling together who'd rather not split into separate cars.

Where it works

Intra Cab is live in Paramaribo and the surrounding ressorten — the Centrum and Waterkant, north through Blauwgrond and Tourtonne, south through Latour and Flora, Kwatta and Uitvlugt to the west, and over the bridge into Commewijne. You can post a request from anywhere in Suriname, including Lelydorp, Nickerie or the airport; whether a driver answers depends on someone being nearby at that moment. Requests in Suriname only go to drivers in Suriname — nothing is shared with Guyana.

Signing up as a rider

Download the app and enter your phone number with the country code (+597). A one-time code arrives by WhatsApp or SMS — no password.
Add your name, and a photo if you want the driver to recognise you.
Post your first trip. That's all a rider needs.

Signing up as a driver

Drivers go through a short identity check so riders know the person who arrives is the person on the profile:

Sign in with your number and choose Chauffeur (or Driver).
Take one selfie holding your rijbewijs. The app reads the licence and checks the face matches; riders only ever see a crop of your face.
Choose Auto, Motor or Bus, set your passenger capacity, and add a clear daylight photo of the vehicle. Adding the registration and a plate photo fully verifies your profile from the start.
If the automatic check passes you're approved within minutes. If a photo can't be read, a person looks at it rather than rejecting you.

The full list is in what you need to drive for Intra Cab — or in Dutch, wat heb je nodig om voor Intra te rijden. Whatever Suriname requires of you to carry paying passengers remains yours to hold; Intra checks identity and vehicle, not permits. There is no exclusivity, so a centrale driver can run Intra alongside the centrale.

Honest about where we are

Intra is new in Suriname, and the centrales have a hundred cars and forty years' head start. Some requests — late at night, outside the city — will wait for an offer or get none. Keep 1680 or 1688 in your phone and Intra on it too; on a quiet evening, the question isn't which service is better in theory but who has a car near you right now. Every driver who signs up shortens that wait for the next rider.