Dubai: The number of people ordering taxis through the call centre or online has increased by 22 per cent, with three million trips booked over the phone, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed.
More than 45 per cent of the 107 million taxi riders in the first half of this year ordered a taxi through automated channels.
According to RTA, a total of 52 million trips were made by taxis in Dubai in the first six months of this year.
“The performance indicators of the taxi sector are showing improvement, according to the Automated Taxi Movement Management System in the emirate, known as Dispatcher 8,” said Dr Yousuf Mohammad Al Ali, CEO of RTA’s Public Transport Agency.
He said the results are measured and performance is analysed with the aim of improving the taxi sector, and realigning the services on offer with the development of Dubai in mind.
“About 45.08 per cent of taxi bookings were made through automated channels during the first half of this year, which compares well with the figure recorded during the same period last year of 42.76 per cent. Bookings executed through the IVR system have exceeded one million whereas the number of bookings made through the Smart Taxi App amounted to 175,000,” noted Al Ali.
Hala Taxi, which is a dedicated on-call taxi service, took a major chunk of these bookings, serving 56 per cent of the customers who booked taxis online.
In the first half of this year, the Booking and Dispatch Centre received 4.5 million calls, a 10 per cent increase over the number of calls received during the same period last year.
