Reckless delivery riders in Dubai risk losing licences under RTA safety system

Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is rolling out a system to monitor delivery bike riders in Dubai, using telematics, AI-enabled cameras, GPS and sensors to track unsafe behaviour.

Saeed Alramsi, Director of Asset Management at RTA, said there are currently about 65,000 delivery bike riders in the city and that number is growing. The new technology will detect speeding, harsh braking, sharp turns, whether riders use safety gear, and whether they veer off assigned routes via geofencing.

“If he needs retraining, we will retrain him. If he needs some instruction we will give him. Otherwise we might even pull his permission to drive for delivery,” Alramsi said. He added that “best drivers” will receive awards, while licenses for dangerous riders may be revoked.

The system will also include cameras to record road conditions and collisions, helping determine fault in accidents. “We don’t want to blame everything on the drivers,” he said. “That camera will actually record everything, sometimes the car is actually turning on them.”

The RTA is currently running proofs of concept (POCs) across multiple operators and bike firms, testing different systems to find what yields the most accurate results. The POCs are expected to conclude by end of the first quarter of 2026, with full installation across all delivery bikes thereafter.

By end-2026, the authority aims for continuous monitoring across Dubai’s entire delivery fleet. Alramsi noted that by that time the number of bikes could rise to 75,000.

The initiative builds on an earlier RTA effort to use AI to monitor delivery riders’ behaviour, first introduced in 2023. RTA said that early pilots helped reduce inspection time from 7.5 minutes to 1 minute per rider.

Delivery platforms and couriers in Dubai will be mandated to incorporate the system once trials conclude. Alramsi said installing hardware on each bike will take time but assured the public that “by end 2026 all the bikes will be monitored.”