Abu Dhabi: Careem has announced a new and more affordable service, called economic car service, for its customers in Abu Dhabi, which will see fare prices reduced by as much as 50 per cent.
The new service was officially signed off by Careem and the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Department of Transport, with the economic car option coming into immediate effect for passengers who want to use it. As part of the new service, passengers who opt for the economic car will pay a minimum fare of Dh19.
“This new agreement we have signed allows us to introduce a new car type that will be 50 per cent cheaper for passengers, creating more accessibility for customers and tourists in Abu Dhabi,” said Bassel Al Nahlaoui, managing director of the Gulf Region of Careem.
“The economic car models that we are going to be using for this new service will be the Toyota Previa, Chevrolet Impala and the Lexus ES-350. There will be a few hundred introduced at the beginning, but if we have to supply more that won’t be a problem for us, we have carefully selected how many cars we are adding to our platform so that there is a good balance between supply and demand,” he added.
“All of this is customer driven, we have listened to their feedback on social media and the emails they have sent us over the past year,” he said.
Al Nahlaoui also said there would be reduced prices across all existing Careem services under the new arrangement by 30 per cent.
Emirati captains
Besides new fare prices, the new deal will also offer employment opportunities for Emiratis to work full- or part-time with the company.
“The second part of the new regulation allows Emiratis to become captains on the Careem platform, which means they will be able to transport customers in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
“This will create new employment opportunities for them, or for those who already have jobs, an additional source of income,” he added.
“Emiratis who want to become captains with us will have to first go through the ITC, who will be in charge of the regulatory process and checking the background of the applicant,” he said.
Uber talks
Mohammad Darwish Al Qazmi, general manager of ITC, who was also present at the signing agreement said that talks were currently taking place with Uber on the resumption of its services in Abu Dhabi. The company was suspended from operating in the capital back in the summer of 2016.
Al Qazmi said the talks were progressing but that there was no timeline yet on when Uber would have its suspension revoked. Al Qazmi added he was confident that an agreement would be reached.
