Dubai: Motorists in Dubai will now have to report minor traffic accidents and pay fines online or end up paying an additional Dh100 as manual service charges with effect from February 1, said a senior police official. Minor accidents involve incidents where no one is injured or there is no serious damages to the vehicles.
Dubai Police on January 31 announced that 18 its public services will no longer be provided in person as consumers will have to use online channels including Dubai police smart app to get them.
In October, Dubai announced online services for commercial entities but on Wednesday, 13 more services, mainly for individual customers, were added to the online-only list.
The new services that will be provided only online include: getting a good conduct certificate; work permit (night — temporary) for small shops such as groceries; copy of lost traffic accident reports; to whom it may concern certificates; lost documents certificate, except passports; reports of minor traffic accidents; payment of traffic fines, home security and traffic fines; clearance certificates; ordering a list of traffic fines; checking traffic fines; and adding black points to driving licence.
Major General Dr Abdul Quddus Abdul Razzaq Al Obaidly, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Quality and Excellence, said the 18 services would be discontinued at police service kiosks and would only be offered online. Any customer who wants to avail himself of any of these services will have to pay Dh100 additional fee, he said.
“The move is part of the orders by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to reduce the number of customers visiting government centres by 80 per cent by 2018,” Maj-Gen Al Obaidly said at a press conference.
He clarified that anyone who comes to the customer service centre asking for these services to be done manually will be guided and helped to get it done through the smart application.
“The manual services will have an extra Dh100 fee if the customer wants it, however, our staff will be present at the smart section of service centres as well to help and guide customers on how to use online channels to avoid the extra fees,” he said.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razouqi, General Director of Artificial Intelligence at Dubai Police, said that they have witness a drop of 84 per cent visitors to the customer service centres since they moved five services online in October last year.
“We have 40 services in our stations and centres. Now 18 services will be only online. By the end of the year, all the services will be offered online only. Customers can use smart application, kiosks, Dubai Police website, partner banks and smart police station to apply for those services to cut [down on] time and effort,” Brigadier Al Razouqi said.
Nearly 351,563 transactions were recorded through smart channels in the first half of 2017 and 1,132 transactions were completed from outside the country via the smart channels.
