Dh1.2 million cash found in Dubai taxis

Dubai: During the first half of this year, items found in taxis in Dubai included a total of Dh1,272,800 in cash, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed on Tuesday.

The figure was among several others shared by RTA regarding its Call Centre (8009090).

During the same period, the Call Centre received 44,062 reports of items lost in taxis. Besides the cash, found items included 12,410 mobile phones, 2,819 electronic devices, 766 passports, and 342 laptops.

Digital transformation

In total, the Call Centre received 951,492 calls during the first half of 2022. “We are pleased to receive the public calls via the Call Centre, but we’re always encouraging the community to use smart and digital channels to obtain our diverse package of services,” the director added.

“Keeping in line with the government’s push towards digitisation and making Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world, and out of RTA’s commitment to making customers happy by availing them smooth and unique service experiences, we continuously strive to educate and encourage customers to use RTA’s smart and digital channels to complete their transactions.

“Consequently, this drive resulted in reducing the dependency on the Call Centre for certain services, including public transport journey planning and parking, which resulted in a 20 per cent drop in the incoming calls. Additionally, the Madinati service in RTA Dubai smart app has been improved, allowing users to report faults and damages via the app. Consequently, the service uptake in the first half of this year soared by 34 per cent over the level reported during the first half of last year.”

New answering system

Mehailah said RTA is currently considering upgrading the technology in use at the Call Centre by introducing artificial intelligence to ease customers’ accessibility to various channels. An improved automatic answering system will be launched enabling natural conversation run by a virtual advisor instead of using the phone’s keypad to choose options from the auto-responder menu. Work is also underway to introduce interactive and instant emotional analysis on all calls handled by the centre, which helps to understand the needs of customers and gauge their satisfaction with the services provided.

Complaints and suggestions

The director revealed that RTA had received in the first half of this year 49,353 complaints and suggestions through the Call Centre and electronic channels, which reflects a seven per cent drop compared to the same period in the previous two years.

These complaints and suggested improvements focused mainly on transportation services. More than half (51 per cent) of complaints and suggested improvements were related to the use of buses and taxis, and eight per cent were related to parking services highlighted by requests for exemption from parking violations. 24 per cent of requests were related to the infrastructure, and per cent of the services were related to the use of the ‘nol’ transport card.

Response time

Almost all (98 per cent) of complaints and suggested improvements were signed-off within the specified period (five working days) for complaints and comments, and 15 working days for suggested improvements.

In the first half of this year, RTA received 5,724 emergency reports through the Call Centre and Madinati through RTA DUBAI app. The instant response and sign-off rate clocked 99 per cent, which reflects the mutual response between the community and RTA and the public’s keenness to protect the appearance of the emirate.