Abu Dhabi Taxis in the capital will soon sport ‘smart’ electronic signs on their roofs which will help commuters easily determine whether they are available for hire.

TransAD (The Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars in Abu Dhabi), the authority regulating taxis in the emirate, will test 30 roof signs on taxis soon, according to a press release.

It is part of the authority’s strategic initiative to modernise taxi services.

The new smart electronic roof sign has been designed with many features such as multiple fixed messages which are automatically triggered by the taxi meter or in-car computer or external optical inputs.

It will display words such as ‘taxi’ and ‘vacant’ in green, or ‘hired’, ‘on call’ and ‘busy’ in red — in both English and Arabic with the option to automatically switch between the two languages.

Colour coding

The new system offers the option of sending live messages from the dispatch centre to the taxi roof sign to display holiday greetings, booking number, and information in different languages.

It also has automatic brightness adjustment for day and night.

The features of the new system will enable potential passengers to identify if taxis are occupied from a distance.

The availability of taxis can be gauged by an easily understood colour scheme of red, green and yellow.

TransAD will test the new model by integrating it with the existing meter system (Mobile Data Terminal, or MDT) during the test phase.

The smart electronic roof signs for the pilot project will be introduced in Abu Dhabi by September.

TransAD is trying to ensure that the product performance during its pilot phase is adequate before going live given local weather conditions and other atmospheric elements.

On successful completion of this pilot project the electronic roof signs will be installed on all taxis in the emirate. More info

Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced two new bus routes –Route 83 and Route 85 — that will connect Tecom free zones Dubai Internet City (DIC), Dubai Media City (DMC) and Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV) to Karama and Discovery Gardens respectively.

The buses operating on the new routes can cut down the commuting time for office-goers within the free zones by almost 50 per cent. The timings of the two bus routes take into account the peak hours.

Badr Al Gargawi, chief executive officer of engineering management, Tecom Investments, said: “The introduction of two new bus routes not only complements the public transport facilities in our free zones, but also eases the parking challenges and traffic congestion.”

The service comes as an immediate outcome of a survey that RTA conducted in collaboration with Tecom Investments in September-October 2011. From a sample size of over 800 workers and students, more than half said ‘yes’ to this bus service if provided. More info

Majestic Wings, a private jet charter services company based in Dubai, has signed an agreement with Dubai World Central (DWC) to establish a fixed-base operators facility within the project’s Aviation District.

The control tower of Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, which is a strategic initiative of the Dubai Government to promote the emirate as a global trade centre.Sonza Gabriel / EPA

The company, which provides VIP air transportation, executive handling, charter and land services for business aircraft, is owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan and Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Nahyan.

It will occupy a 7,360 square metre plot on one of the most premium locations in the district, within walking distance of the newly announced permanent venue of the Dubai Airshow, from next year.

As well as a class “A” hanger, the site will have a dedicated apron measuring 4,738 sq metres in front of the hangar facility, providing space for several aircraft and ensuring easy access for clients. The company hopes to move in within 12 months.

“Majestic Wings’ movement to the facility at DWC is in line with our strategic growth plans to position the company among leading global players in the general aviation industry,” Sheikh Hamad said. “The landside and airside integration is in sync with facilitating our general aviation business.” More info

DUBAI // Taxi drivers in the emirate are illegally earning commissions and free massages for taking customers to health and spa clubs.

Massage parlour visiting cards in Dubai. Pawan Singh

A spokesman for the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said the practice could taint Dubai’s image, and the authority would urge taxi companies to discourage it.

As part of a marketing plan, the clubs and spas distribute cards, akin to customer loyalty cards, to drivers who can use them to earn as much as Dh100 for every customer they recommend. Cabbies can also claim a free massage for every five clients they bring.

“Only after the deal is finalised, drivers get paid,” said Abdul, a taxi driver. “If we bring five customers regularly they give us a free massage.

“Usually it is tourists who ask for massages. I take people to centres where I can make some money on the fare and get a commission. This way there is a double benefit.”

Taxi drivers either directly solicit customers after picking them up from airports or hotels, or wait for passengers to approach them.

One driver said he would ring up the massage centre after a passenger sought the service. “If they ask me, I take them to centres in Karama, or Bur Dubai,” he said. “I can’t compel them to go for a massage. That would be wrong. It is based on what the customer wants.” More info

The Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC), Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), has recently offered a Umrah trip to 45 outstanding cabdrivers (first batch) in the context of its objectives to improve drivers’ satisfaction rating, and boost the psychological and social atmosphere, which contributes to raising the operational efficiency and attaining higher customer satisfaction.

According to Yousef Al Ali, CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation, “The trip is part of a series of trips organized by the DTC to the Holy Land, as per an approved timetable in an initiative targeting cabdrivers through offering them fully free Umrah trip, including accommodation.”

“A committee was formed to accompany drivers, and deliver to them educative lectures on how to perform Umrah rituals. Cabbies were issued with illustrative booklets, Ihram clothing, copies of the holy Quran, rosaries and Zamzam water,” he added.

Ammar bin Tamim, Director of DTC Fleet Drivers Affairs, said, “Through its different sections, the Fleet Drivers Affairs Dep’t is endeavouring to provide a comfortable environment for more than 7,900 cabbies hailing from 31 different nationalities.”  More info

Dubai Over the past 15 years that Subhan Abdul Rahman has been behind the wheels of the Dubai Taxi Corporation’s cabs, he has caused no accident, received no traffic fine and has had zero customer complaints.

He’s also generated fairly high revenues.

Rahman, a 51-year-old Indian from the state of Tamil Nadu, said these were the attributes that helped him win the award.

“I’m extremely proud. There are so many drivers employed with Dubai Taxi…I’m very happy to be chosen for the award from amongst them,” Rahman said. More info

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has hiked the minimum charges of prebooking a taxi during peak hours by more than 65 per cent. Taxi drivers welcome the move and said it will help reduce the misuse of the pre-booking facility.

Starting April 15, 2012 the minimum fare of all pre-booked  cab service in Dubai will go up from Dh6 to Dh10.

According to a statement issued by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), the Public Transport Agency has approved the revised flag-down rate of taxicabs only pre-booked through the Booking & Dispatch Center during the morning rush hours from 07:00 am to 10:00 am, and evening rush hours from 04:00 pm to 08:00 pm, from Saturday to Wednesday.

The evening peak hour timing has been extended by four hours on Thursdays, Fridays, during Eid and other official holidays.

A senior RTA official explained the hike as a measure to ease the availability of cabs during peak hours.

Essa Abdul Rahman Al Dosari, CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency, said: “The RTA has taken this decision, after conducting a number of studies and field surveys to review the obstacles that plague cabdrivers’ daily work and impede the provision of better services to customers with the aim of sorting them out by adopting the best practices in this score.”

Elaborating on the revised fare, Al Dosari stated that all taximeters would be reset to reflect the new tariff only during morning and evening rush hours. “Normal fare will apply during other times, as the hike will only apply to pre-booked taxis; which accounts only for 5% of total taxi users,” he explained.

Dubai taxi drivers have welcomed the move and said it would prevent the misuse of the service. “Many times people pre-book  the service, but when we reach the place they would have gone by another available taxi that they would have managed to stop. It is a waste of our time, the RTA’s message system etc., and creates a lot of delay,” said one driver who operates in Dubai Silicon Oasis. More info

DUBAI — The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), represented by the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC), has recently signed a contract with Al Dobowi for the supply of South Korean’s Hankook Tyres for taxicabs.

Dubai taxi

The contract runs for two years subject to renewal, and the approximate contracted value for the first year is AED 10,558,195.

Yousef Al Ali, Acting CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation, and Hargiev Singh Kandahari, CEO of Al Dobowi Co., signed the contract in the presence of a number of Directors and senior officials from both sides.

According to Al-Ali, the selection of Al Dobowi came in view of their continuous cooperation as well as their extensive experience, excellent reputation and quality tyres, pointing to the crucial role played by tyres in maintaining the safety of vehicles, drivers and passengers. Therefore, appropriate tyres should be selected and maintained regularly as provided for in the contract signed with Al Dobowi, he noted. “Dubai Taxi Corporation strives to provide all security and safety issues related to tires so as to achieve the best results in this regard and materialize RTA’s vision of providing Safe and Smooth Transport for All,” he added.

The Contract stipulates that Al Dobowi supplies the South Korean Hankook brand tyres to Dubai Taxi Corporation’s vehicles, conforming strictly to Gulf Standards as specified by the Standardization and Metrology Organization for Gulf Cooperation Council countries, at the value agreed upon.

For his part, Hargiev Singh Kandahari expressed his pleasure to resume working side by side with the RTA in general and Dubai Taxi Corporation in particular, for two extra years, indicating their readiness to fulfil what was agreed upon in this Contract, putting the benefit of the RTA, DTC and its vehicles and at the highest degree of security and safety.

It’s 10 PM and I’m in the back of a Dubai taxi, racing home after a shit day’s work. My driver is mumbling something in a mixture of Urdu and English as we thread through T-junctions and traffic lights.

“You have family back home?”

“Just my mom, dad, and sister.”

“How much money do you give to your sister?”

“None–she works.”

“None?!” he cries.

Mahmud is 32 and from Peshawar, on Pakistan’s perilous border with Afghanistan. It’s the rocky hinterland where the US claims a new generation of Al Qaeda terrorists are being groomed, and only a few hours from the former home of Osama Bin Laden. It wasn’t politics that brought Mahmud a thousand miles across Asia–it was money, and even that’s not good anymore.

“Back home I had nothing,” he says. “Here, what I get I send to my sisters, my brothers, and parents.” Mahmud has been in Dubai six years. When he first got here, it was a very different place. Half of it wasn’t standing, certainly not the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world by a mile, an 828-meter middle finger at the western powers that ran Dubai as recently as 1971.

Back then the city was home to fewer than 100,000 people concentrated around a pearl-rich creek. Now, as we all know, it’s a sprawling super-city home to over two million, of which barely 20 percent are locals. Scores of South Asian service staff – laborers and taxi drivers like Mahmud, who saw a chance to earn western money in the Middle East and jumped at it.

The metro only has two lines, so everyone gets cabs. But the drivers aren’t making any money, especially after the financial claw-hammer crashed down on Dubai in 2008. On a lucky day, a driver used to be able to make up to a thousand dollars a month in fares. But the state-governed taxi firms make him pay back visa costs, medical check-ups, and car maintenance. The company also fines drivers up to $60 for missing monthly targets–they even pay $250 for their flight attendant-style uniforms.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), revealed that the total revenues of the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) in 2011 clocked Dh1.058 billion of which Dh979 million were operational revenues, Dh79 million were non-operational revenues; which shows a 22 per cent hike when compared with 2010 results where revenues amounted to Dh864.341 million.

Expenditure of the DTC amounted to Dh745 million in 2011 whereas expenses in 2010 were about Dh597.497 million.

“Total profits earned by the DTC soared from Dh114.695 million in 2010 to Dh146 million in 2011 reflecting a 28 per cent increase following the deduction of the franchise fees paid by the DTC to Public Transport Agency; which cover the fees of number plates as well as booking and dispatch amounting to Dh167.025 million. Accordingly, the operational efficiency of the DTC grew from 93 per cent in 2010 to 96 per cent in 2011,” stated Al Tayer.

During a visit to DTC, accompanied by Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, RTA Board Member, where he met with the CEO, Directors and Managers of the DTC, Al Tayer expressed his delight with the results of DTC operational performance indicators where the number of trips made by taxicabs (Dubai Taxi only) in 2011 amounted to 62.36 million trips in which 125 million passengers.

During the meeting, Al Tayer attended to a briefing presented by Yousef Al Ali, Acting CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation, on the initiatives carried out by the DTC to improve services offered to customers, and raise the fleet’s operational efficiency, such as developing training programs for drivers and honing their driving skills, which paid dividends by reducing the accident rate from 1.92 accidents per 100,000 kilometers in 2009 to 1.26 accidents per 100,000 kilometers in 2011.

The Corporation also launched enterprise (Honest Hands) service, in response to the wishes and requirements of the public in response to the continued customer needs identification studies. The service targets children, women, students at schools, universities and colleges, families and special needs people.

The service is characterized by privacy, speed and quality, as only the distinguished drivers are selected to provide this service using 60 vehicles of all types in the initial phase.

This service contributed to increasing the number of trips by 10 per cent, and revenue by 6 per cent. Among other initiatives launched by the DTC, is converting the disabled taxis to the dual system to serve both the disabled and other passengers. More info