Minimum taxi fare to be Dh10

Dubai: The minimum fare for commuting in a taxi in Dubai is now Dh10 with immediate effect, Gulf News has learnt.

The move came after recent complaints from drivers that short trips waste their time and reflect badly on their daily minimum targets. The minimum starting fare, however, has not changed - it is Dh4.

The policy of charging a minimum Dh10 fare took commuters by surprise because it was implemented without any formal announcement by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), which is authorised to approve such decision.

An RTA spokesperson told Gulf News that the final decision was taken on March 31 after consultation with the Dubai Taxi Agency and four other franchise taxi companies in Dubai. The new fare structure was implemented from April 1. However, he failed to give reason why the new policy was not advertised to make commuters aware.

Explaining the new fare, an agent at the Cars Taxi said that a passenger has to pay minimum Dh10 even if the fare for his travel is less than this. Passengers whose fare is more than Dh10 will not be affected with this new policy.

However, commuters did not welcome the move. "It is not a wise move especially when everyone is feeling the economic crunch," said Kaleem Iqbal, an Indian. He said that the new move would discourage commuters like him to hail a cab.

Chris J, an American said: "I think they will lose more for more commuters will opt to take public buses or just walk for shorter trips," he added.

Commuters were hit recently when taxis from Sharjah started charging Dh20 in addition to the fare from passenger travelling from Sharjah to Dubai. "The move also badly hit the taxi drivers as more people started sharing cars and using public buses," said a taxi driver in Sharjah.

RTA is also considering introduction of minimum Dh20 fare for commuters travelling from Dubai to Sharjah to reciprocate the Sharjah move. Dubai has more than 7,500 taxis.

Very shocking news, this is not a good move to increase the minimum charges to Dh10. It will affect the middle-income families like us.
Saji Nair
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 12:34

Earlier, I was also a customer care officer in one of the franchise taxis in Dubai. Most of the problems are with short distance passengers who even refuse to cross the road and instead get inside the taxi.
Halif Al Deen
Port Sudan,Sudan
Posted: April 03, 2009, 12:32

Small fares are bad for taxis everywhere in the world.I would never give a taxi driver in Dubai less than 10 DHS even before this rule was introduced. If the fare is less that Dh10 it is just being cheap and mean to give the driver less than Dh10. If everyone treated the Taxi drivers with a little less contempt maybe they would have reason to be more friendly to all their passengers.This is a good move on the part of the RTA - just poorly advertised.
Cam
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 12:26

I dont think its a good move by the RTA .Public transport is meant to be chaep and easy .I would see such a step as fair once the metro is here . It is nothing to be happy about.
Hasnain Javed
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 12:17

i feel this is bad decision by RTA .The taxi drivers will suffer more as the people will start to use public transport. may be i think using of taxi by public in future will stop.
Jagadeesan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:48

really it is a bad news if the short trip is affecting the drivers target, the suggestion is to decrease the drivers targets.
Maher
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:45

great move by RTA. this will make taxi drivers life worse. we commuters will also take a step of not travelling in a taxi for shorter distance instead use public transport.
Babitha
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:44

I have only taken taxi for a short trips when I had a leg injury; in all the other cases always my taxi trips are longer than Dh10. Taxis are also so cheap here; for example in Scandinavia the starting fare is Dh30.I really like taxis in Dubai; cars are good quality ones and they are always using the metres; you don't have to hackle with the price like for example in most of the Asian countries.
Johanna
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:42

i know that the taxi company asks the drivers to make a minimum income of some amount and then the driver will get commision on that so instead of making the starting fare as Dhs 10/- they should make the minimum daily income for the driver less in that way drivers will not get affected as well as the public.
Ali
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:34

How, can they take such a decision. They have to understand that people too are suffering because of salary cuts. Sharjah too increased the fare to Dh20 arbitarily. Moreover, the public transport is so bad that one has to wait for buses for hours.
Sony D
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:32

If I use a taxi every day it will come up to more than Dh7000 a year. For that money I can buy a car and already after one year I will start saving money as the cost for me then will be less than Dh3000 per year for insurance, maintenance and use of the car.
M. Sorensen
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:22

This was least expected. They should have declared it at least 2 weeks before hand to know what people have to say...or is it that the taxi owners are more important than people living in dubai?
Dhanya
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:22

they can increase the rate if they want to. but i think the rta should also increase good customer service amongst their drivers. most of their drivers are rude and quite shrewd if i may say...
Aimee
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:09

I FEEL THE RTA"s decision was hastened without public comments and economic situation of the working class.Some will benefit in the medium term.A charge of dh6 is fair and reasonable for short trips.
Ahmad Kadwa
Durban,South Africa
Posted: April 03, 2009, 11:07

This will encourage public transport use. though the Dh10 minimum fare is not a solution. The same taxi drivers triggered lots of losses of time and money last year, inspite of compalaints, they would not take passengers on road waiting for two hours, three hours. I used to suffer, until i resorted to have a private driver of my own and car. buses dont take or reach locations on time either.
Tarek Syed
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 10:10

This price hike should have been put in place after the mass rapid public transport like the metro and bus services are well connected to all parts of the emirate. Using a taxi is a necessity rather than a luxurynow.
Bobby
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 10:00

It's Hobson's Choice in this situation. With a lousy bus network, what choice do people have if they need to get around. What a "good" choice of timing to implement the minimum charge when people are losing their jobs!
John Chua
KL,Malaysia
Posted: April 03, 2009, 09:02

During the global financial crunch time, I don't think this decision made by RTA to implement minimum charges as AED 10.00. We would expect the authorities to support the public instead of making life harder. request to officals to reconsider the decision
Anoop Menon
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 08:55

This will encourage people to go for illegal taxis. Given the global economic crunch the most effected is the common man, now the companies are also paying less salaries. So how can an ordinary man bear this cost?
Mohammad Esmail
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 08:53

They can increase the rate in a reasonable manner. Now all companies are reducing the salary or terminating the employ, how we can overcome this situation? Why they don't anounce it officially?
Khalid
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 08:53

Will this bring about an improvement in the attitude of rude and aggressive drivers? May be now they will take you to where you want to go instead of them going in the direction they need to go at the time.
Darren Pottter
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 08:36

Instead of increasing the charges for shorter trips, RTA should have reduced the daily budget for taxi drivers.People have stopped using taxi because of finanacial problems, now there will be more reduction in people using taxi's.
Gopal
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 08:22

I thought the aim of the RTA was to promote public transport by making incentives to remove the number of vehicles from the roads. This is a deterant and I will now go and buy a car because it will be more economical for me than to pay Dh10 for every trip. 1 more car on the road. Well done RTA!
Mikey
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 07:15

This seems entirely reasonable. Taxis in Dubai are far cheaper than they are in the UK, Europe or the United States, and whilst admittedly the standard of some drivers leaves much to be desired, it is clear that their take-home pay is minimal. Good luck to the drivers, they do deserve better wages!!
Hamish
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 06:15

What about the customer's right? If they agree on the new rules will the cab stop when signaling to them will the drivers behave nicely with the customers will they come in time when booked???
Sherif
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 02:37

It's a good move from the RTA. Hopefully they will also police the taxi drivers who ignores passengers and favor a few. One more thing - tell the drivers to stop complaining to passengers regarding the traffic situation. Just look at the road and keep on driving! cheers!
Michael
Dubai,UAE
Posted: April 03, 2009, 02:16

I am a frequent visitor to Dubai for business, pleasure and shopping. Seeing this Dh 10 miniumum fare has really shocked me. I know and understand that most taxi drivers do not want to take short journey passengers as they find it time consuming and not viable for them to complete their daily targets.So, in addition to increase the minimum fare, the road transport authority should have also asked the taxi agencies to reduce their daily targets considering the current economic crunch and decline in tourism world wide. Additionally, the number of taxis should be increased thereby allowing both commuters and tourists to have free access to the taxis or should I say when required.A lot of visitors to Dubai will support me to say that it becomes a nightmare to find a taxi for a short distance since most drivers want to have passengers who are travelling a distance so they can complete their targets and also get tips. Let's hope that this move of RTA will also bring a change in drivers attitude so that they will not first of all give priority to Tourists (who they expect a lot of tips from) and secondly will also not discourage commuters travelling short distances since they are getting a higher price for such service.
Suresh Wadhwani
Banjul,The Gambia
Posted: April 03, 2009, 00:40