Abu Dhabi: Plans to introduce CCTV security cameras inside all taxis in Abu Dhabi by 2016 have been welcomed by taxi drivers, who say the new monitoring system will make their jobs easier when it comes to customer complaints and identifying abusive behaviour from passengers.
Gulf News spoke to taxi drivers who said that they were often fined because of customer complaints, when in fact it was the customer, and not the taxi driver, who was in the wrong.
“I am very happy that cameras will be placed inside taxis to monitor what happens,” said Prem Kumar, a taxi driver from Nepal. “This will make it easier to see who was right and who was wrong, the driver or the passenger. At the moment when the passenger complains it’s the driver who receives the fine, and it’s difficult to prove our case because it’s our word against the passengers.”
Kumar explains that there have been instances where passengers have complained against him, even though he was following the rules, “One time I had a situation in which five people wanted to enter the taxi, so I told them this is not allowed because I can get in trouble and be fined. They began to shout at me and complain saying why wasn’t this allowed. Afterwards one of them called and complained and I got fined.”
He said that in one worrying case he was also physically harmed, “On my second day I had a female passenger and I told her if she could explain the directions to me because I was new, and she got very angry with me. She started shouting and then hit me on my shoulder.”
“It’s not good to abuse the taxi driver. Many times I get passengers who swear and insult me. We are not animals. There should be respect towards us, and the cameras will be a benefit because it will catch passengers who are shouting and insulting us,” he said.
Echoing the same sentiments, taxi driver Mohammad Aryan, from Pakistan, says he is looking forward to the CCTV cameras. “It is very good because the cameras will be able to show who is wrong. If there is a complaint the driver can now point to the camera evidence to show it wasn’t the driver who did anything bad.”
Crucially, the cameras will be able to identity passengers who leave without paying, an issue Aryan has had to face a few times, “There are some passengers who tell me to wait for a few minutes while they go inside the building to get something, and afterwards they don’t return. In the end I have to pay for that fare, and the money comes out of my pocket.”
“Now when a customer tells me to wait for a few minutes, I tell them I cannot because of what has happened before, and then they get angry and file a complaint and I get fined,” he added.
Siar Khan says that the new cameras will make things safer for the driver and the passenger, “This is a good plan that they are making, overall I think it will make things safer for me as a taxi driver and for the passenger. The great thing about the camera is that it sees everything. As a taxi driver this is very beneficial because it can allow me to prove I have done nothing wrong if a complaint is made unjustly against me.”
He is especially hopeful that unruly passengers are caught on camera.
“I have customers who get angry at me and talk to me in a bad way because they say I am going in the wrong direction. For example they tell me to go straight, then later they say I should have gone left, but by the time they tell me to go left we have already passed that turning. And then they don’t want to pay, saying my mistake has made the taxi fare go higher, so I end up telling them no problem if it’s Dh10, I tell them just pay Dh8.”
