UAE | Traffic and Transport
New taxi fleet fails to impress residents
Residents of Fujairah still prefer to use older taxis rather than the new ones as fresh-faced drivers struggle to compete with their more experienced counterparts.
- By Fuad Ali, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:25 July 6, 2007
- The new fleet of Cars taxis will soon replace the older taxis although some Fujairah residents say they prefer the older vehicles for their experienced drivers.
- Image Credit: Fuad Ali/Gulf News
Fujairah: Residents of Fujairah still prefer to use older taxis rather than the new ones as fresh-faced drivers struggle to compete with their more experienced counterparts.
Despite being in business for nearly a month, the new - and more professional - fleet of taxis is still facing stiff competition from older taxis.
The situation for the new Cars taxi fleet is not helped by the new drivers' lack of knowledge of the area and their often non-existent Arabic language skills. Most employees of the new fleet have come directly from abroad.
The current taxi drivers said they were unimpressed by the new company's pay structure.
Ahmad Zeib, a taxi driver for over four years, said most of his experienced colleagues would seek employment in one of the bigger emirates when the older taxis are finally taken off the streets in a few months.
More expensive
Unlike many of his colleagues, new taxi driver Aurangzeb Jehan, from Pakistan, speaks some Arabic and he says business for many drivers is very slow.
"Most people still prefer to ride older taxis, they want something cheaper perhaps," he said.
Most journeys with older taxis in Fujairah city will cost customers around Dh4 to Dh5, but new meter taxis charge Dh2 upfront with Dh1.25 per kilometre after that, adding a few dirhams to existing journeys.
Mohammad Yaseen, a resident, says his experience with the new taxis made him go back to older ones despite the obvious difference in quality between the two.
"The new drivers don't know the way, most of the time you have to direct them ... when I used one of them before, each driver kept sending me to another one so in the end I just decided to take an older taxi," said Yaseen.
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