By Lily B. Libo-on www.khaleejtimes.com
DUBAI – The gross revenues of the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) soared to Dh864.341 million in 2010 compared to Dh798.837 million in 2009 with its taxi fleet running 82 million trips, lifting 164.7 million passengers last year, Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said on Saturday.
He also said that the total expenditures of the DTC in 2010 were Dh597.497 million compared with Dh545.821 million in 2009 but DTC’s operational efficiency also increased from 92 per cent in 2009 to 93 per cent in 2010, whereas the number of productive kilometres increased by six per cent when compared with 2009 figures.
Al Tayer said that net profits posted by DTC increased from Dh103.6 million in 2009 to Dh114.695 million in 2010 recording in the process an 11 per cent increase rate after the deduction of the franchise fees paid by DTC to the Public Transport Agency against the use of number plates amounting to Dh152.959 million.
He was delighted with the results of DTC’s operational indicators, which showed that the number of daily trips executed by DTC was at 225,500 trips per day in which about 451,000 persons were served every day.
To upgrade the level of services rendered to DTC customers, RTA took pioneering actions of introducing a number of initiatives and programmes to uplift the class of DTC services and the operational efficiency of the fleet. These measures included resetting the timing of periodical maintenance to suit the taxi peak time and focusing on carrying maintenance and repairs internally at the DTC’s workshop and the percentage of these repairs were as high as 75 per cent in 2010.
DTC also launched several motivational initiatives for cabdrivers including the Ideal Cabdriver Award (Drivers Performance System) for which 2 million dirham were set aside as prizes, and also initiated the Distinguished Cabdriver Award, stepped up the surveillance control on taxicabs, and launched Awselni service to run a shuttle service for cabbies between DTC office and drivers accommodation under a contract made with a company which deployed 3 buses to run the service.
“DTC attaches considerable importance to customer service and customer feedback. In this regard it conducts external cleaning of 1,500 taxicabs and the interior of 25 vehicles every day. It fitted taxicabs with pleasant organic scents to be replaced every month, and modified the technical specifications of taxi seats to replace them with dark-coloured fabric that prevents the formation of stains.
DTC also offers a range of excellent services to the public including Airport Taxi, Ladies Taxi, District Taxi, Hatta Taxi and Special Needs Taxi. The Airport Taxi fleet comprises 350 taxicabs deployed at Terminal 1, 2 and 3 operated by 800 qualified drivers,” Al Tayer added.
Al Tayer further added that RTA would continue upgrading the quality of services delivered to the public in keeping with the regional and global profile of Dubai in all sectors including business, economic, service, financial and tourist fields among others.
