Dubai The Dubai civic body aims to re-enforce the smart addressing system Makani among food outlets after several of them failed to adopt it, an official said on Sunday.
The Makani app, which was adopted by fast-food and bakery outlets last September, was intended to ease delivery of food to people’s homes through 10 digit geo-coordinates for each building’s entrance. However, residents have complained that the service has not been enforced.
“I gave the 10-digits of my home to the call centre of the fast-food chain but was told that they don’t know how to use the Makani system. I ended up going back to giving my usual directions, and it took over half an hour to explain where I live to the delivery man,” said Abdul Rahman Hussain, a resident of Al Barsha 2.
Among the groups that signed the Makani agreement with Dubai Municipality are KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s, McDonald’s, Automatic Restaurant and Al Reef Lebanese Restaurant.
Abdul Hakim Malek, director of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department at the municipality, told Gulf News that there was a lack of cooperation from some restaurant chains in using the smart system. “We do recognise that there is a problem and the municipality will push these restaurants to use the smart system. Restaurants are not training their staff properly and need to be constantly reminded that they have to offer these services to customers,” he said.
Malek said that residents are no longer required to download Makani app and have the option to punch in their 10-digit coordinates through Google Maps.
Currently, 10,000 plates have been set up in several areas, including Media City, International City and Al Khawaneej, and 30,000 new plates will be fixed in buildings by the end of February.
“The governments of Ajman and Umm Al Quwain have already adopted the Makani system, and the government of Fujairah has also expressed an interest. Our overall goal is to have the country on the grid, and we are on the right path to achieving that,” said Malek.
Further developments for the Makani app in 2016 include making it available offline by next May, and to add 90,000 plates to the remaining buildings by next December.
HOW TO FIND YOUR MAKANI COORDINATES
Download the Makani app
Users can type the name of the building or location in the search bar and click on the desired result
Or residents can zoom in on the map, clicking on the building or location
