RTA inaugurates online taxi booking service

RTA inaugurates online taxi booking service

In a step to enhance Dubai e-government applications

Roads & Transport Authority – Nashwan Att’aee:
RTA's Public Transport Agency; which oversees taxi sector in Dubai Emirate, has recently launched Online Taxi Booking service, known as e-Taxi. RTA offers this service to the residents and visitors of Dubai as it is vitally important during events that warrant prior arrangements to be made by hotels, businesses and organizations in certain occasions such as Dubai Shopping Festival. Through this service, the customer can book the required taxicab well in advance to ensure timely arrival at the required destination.

Commenting on the new service, the CEO of Public Transport Agency Mr. Essa Abdul-Rahman Al Dosari said: “RTA is always seeking to implement Dubai e-Government electronic applications through capitalizing on the world’s top-notch technological solutions. The online taxi booking service is based on having the customer’s details and address saved in the Dispatch system at the Public Transport Agency; which makes it easy to process the booking in subsequent times. A taxi can be booked 24 / 7 through accessing the link (http://rta.ae/etaxi), and this service is currently available for hotels only.

“This service is based on two key elements; the customer and cabdriver. The customer books a taxi and sends the booking request to the Dispatch Section at the Public Transport Agency. The system electronically forwards the request to the nearest taxicab available in the area of the customer. The cabdriver who receives the request is held responsible for auctioning the request and ensuring arrival to the customer on time without delay,” continued Al Dosari.

“The Online taxi booking service would be fully available to the public and all segments of the community at the end of this year. This service is poised to bring about a remarkable cut in the number of telephone calls incoming to the Dispatch Section at the Public Transport Agency. This would in turn slash the number of working hours spent by the Dispatch Section staff for processing the incoming telephone call requests, as the electronic system of the e-Taxi service is automatically operated and is highly efficient in processing the requests. This in turn would contribute to uplifting the caliber of services provided by the RTA to taxi passengers in the Emirate of Dubai,” added the CEO of Public Transport Agency.
“The launch of this service was widely received, for the time being, by the hotels in Dubai Emirate, and is expected to boost the revenues of franchise companies operating under RTA's umbrella. With the number of internet users in the UAE accounting for a high proportion of the total number of population, we anticipate a rise in the e-Taxi service requests when the service becomes available to the public on due course,” concluded Al Dossari.