DUBAI: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has tied up with a global company with expertise in taxi hailing apps to reduce waiting time to five minutes for those needing a ride and allow passenger sharing.
“Through this new company, the RTA intends to leverage the taxi sector in Dubai. It involves raising the efficiency of taxis in Dubai through enhanced accessibility of vehicles and their online booking and reducing the expected waiting time for the vehicle,” said HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA at a press conference held Dec. 23, referring to Careem.
He added, “It also entails a host of advantages to clients such as making a direct online payment via the app, charting the most suitable journey route, sharing the ride with others, and displaying details of the vehicle and driver, in addition to an option for providing the service with a chauffeur.”
Officials said taxi waiting time used to take from 15 to 25 minutes.
“Now we will do a better job,” said Al Tayer. “We need to have someone to do it without investing too much. Before, we thought to do it ourselves but we discovered that we will have to spend too much money to create the platform. We said, ‘Why not get a private company to do it?”
Al Tayer said five companies submitted proposals. Careem was chosen because it provided the best. The company has also been in Dubai for some time and thus knows the system.
Long waiting time after placing a call for a taxi has been a recurring issue among Dubai passengers. Also, taxi-sharing has not been allowed.
According to RTA, there are 10,847 taxis in Dubai taking some 174 million passengers a year for a total of 100 million trips.
The system will also be available for limousine service.
