Dubai: People can now pay their Dubai Police traffic fines in cash or by card through almost a thousand e-kiosks across the UAE.
The new service, which was announced on Sunday, is a collaboration between Dubai Police’s Smart Services Department and Max Box Middle East (MBME), a kiosk and payment solutions company.
Colonel Khalid Al Razooqi, Director of the Smart Service Department, said the new initiative will make it more convenient for the public to pay fines. “The new kiosks accept cash payments, which was not available in the previous kiosks,” he said.
All MBME kiosks available across the country now have the Dubai Police fine payment application.
“In addition to the pre-existing 1,000 kiosks, there are 21 kiosks that will be distributed at Dubai police stations and other popular areas, that will have the Dubai Police brand and logo. Five of these have already been placed and the rest are expected to be placed by the end of the month,” he said.
In the first 10 days of launching the feature, there were 327 transactions that amounted to Dh248,330 in fine payments.
“This is just the first phase; we are working with MBME to provide five more services through the kiosks such as requests for changing a vehicle’s colour to requesting a night work permit,” Col Al Razooqi said.
The kiosks have tens of other companies that provide their services through the same kiosks such as du, etisalat, Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, Federal Electricity and Water Authority, and Salik, to name a few.
The agreement with MBME was earlier signed by Dubai Police Chief, Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina.
Richard White, general manager of MBME, said that drawing from their experience, people still prefer to pay in cash: “Eighty-five per cent of the payments we receive are in cash.”
He said that people still feel more comfortable paying in cash rather than through cards, “it is the culture here. Some people also find it more convenient, some do not have great faith in the process and fear something would go wrong, and for some it is just a habit, years of paying in cash,” he said.
That is why, he added, the kiosks are a good choice for people who prefer paying in cash, he said.
“We are also working on making it possible for people who do not like to pay using cards to process everything on their phone and then finish their transaction by paying in cash through the kiosks,” Col Al Razooqi said.
The MBME firm is working with Abu Dhabi Police to implement the same service.
The firm said it has 305 kiosk devices in Abu Dhabi, 262 in Dubai, 113 in Sharjah, 70 in Ajman, 52 in Al Ain, 43 in Ras Al Khaimah, 42 in Fujairah and 24 in Umm Al Quwain.
Kiosks are also available at all air and land borders in the UAE.
For this year, until the month of September, 228,231 fine payments worth more than Dh248.7 million were paid at Dubai police stations, while 63,046 transactions were made through the Dubai Police website worth Dh70.7 million.
The Dubai Police app on both Apple and Android had 51,849 fine payment transactions worth more than Dh57.4 million, mpay had 14,751 transactions worth more than Dh12 million and the mobile website had 40,001 fine payments worth more than Dh4.1 million.
People can visit www.mbme.ae to find the kiosk machine closest to them.
