By Andy Sambidge www.arabianbusiness.com
The number of taxi journeys taken in Dubai rose in the second half of 2009, despite the opening of the emirate’s metro system in September, it was announced on Monday.
More than 36 million trips were taken by cabs in the emirate in H2, two million more than in the first haldf of the year, the Roads and Transport Authority said in a statement.
Operational efficiency of taxis operating under the RTA also rose to 92.6 percent during peak hours in the second half of 2009, compared to 85 percent in the first half.
Eisa Abdul Rahman Al Dosari, CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency, said: “The taxi sector is one of the most important vital transport sectors in Dubai…and is progressively developing in terms of service and increased number of vehicles in response to the increasing rise in the number of users, including residents, visitors and tourists.”
The number of calls received at the booking and dispatch centre totalled 3.3 million, of which more than 2.3 calls were executed while the number of vehicles booked automatically over the IVR system topped 883,000.
The average time taken to dispatch taxis to customers was 12.52 minutes, the RTA said.
RTA statistics also showed that there were only 0.4 accidents for every 100,000 trips during the second half of 2009 while 94 percent of all customer complaints were resolved in the second half of 2009.
Al Dosari added that 28 inspection campaigns of taxis were launched during the second half of 2009 to combat issues such as reckless driving.
