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Dubai Taxi Meters will Now Tick for Every Waiting Minute

Joy Sengupta

9 April 2009

DUBAI — Drilling an even bigger hole in the pockets of people travelling in the emirate’s cabs, the Public Transport Agency (PTA) at the RTA has spiked the first 10-minute waiting time of the meter, senior PTA officials said
on Wednesday.

Earlier, 10 minutes used to be a grace period after which only the taxi meter started adding 50 fils per minute as waiting charge.

Now, once the taxi gets stuck in a traffic jam, the waiting charge will start immediately with the meter adding 50 fils per minute.

Last week, the cabs in the emirate started charging a minimum fare of Dh10 in addition to a raise in the flag-fall rate (meter fare) to Dh20 for travelling to Sharjah and the northern emirates.

Issa Al Dossari, the CEO of the PTA maintained that the aim of introducing these measures was to encourage drivers to lift passengers from different destinations, congested or not, and minimise the cases of passenger refusals. On the Dh20 fare to Sharjah, Dossari said, “The meter will as usual start to work with Dh3 and the driver will be adding the amount of Dh20 in any area after entering Sharjah or at the end of the trip manually by pressing a button on the car meter. The amount of Dh20 will not be added electronically.”

As for the minimum fare of Dh10, Al Dossari said that the taxi drivers used to carry passengers to a number of short distances within Dubai via trips costing less than Dh10 that forced the drivers to refuse to pick up passengers to short distance destinations.

“To put an end to this phenomenon and encourage the drivers to carry passengers whatever the distance is, the meter will electronically round the amount to be Dh10 per trip,” the
official said.

He said that the taxi meters of all the cabs were being adjusted accordingly.

An official at PTA said that the Marketing and Corporate Communications department will start a campaign aimed at enlightening the people about these new rules.

The campaign will include distribution of brochures to the people as well as the taxi drivers.

The driver will be required to show a passenger the set of new rules to avoid any confusion.

joy@khaleejtimes.com

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0833960/plotsummary

Hahaha, hoppa there goes the paycheck again. Don't you just love them traffic congestions. Now you even have to pay for them, while it should be a goverment problem to be solved first !!!

Crazy over there

RobbyG wrote:Hahaha, hoppa there goes the paycheck again. Don't you just love them traffic congestions. Now you even have to pay for them, while it should be a goverment problem to be solved first !!!

Crazy over there

Yeah.. we hate to pay more for anything but, hopefully, this should solve the problem with taxi drivers who refuse to take passengers to, or thru, congested areas! We’ll see how it goes!!!

invest in a car.

rudeboy wrote:invest in a car.

And help the taxi drivers by adding more to the cogestion!!

Just kidding!

rudeboy wrote:invest in a car.

You mean: Devest in a car

A car is the worst investment you can ever make. Not one asset falls harder in price than a car. Except for real estate in Dubai

it says that last week cabs started charging a minimum fee of 10 dhs. I just took a cab this morning and it came to 4 dhs and 50 fils. Can someone explain to me how?

dee7o wrote:it says that last week cabs started charging a minimum fee of 10 dhs. I just took a cab this morning and it came to 4 dhs and 50 fils. Can someone explain to me how?

One of the following:

1. The driver didn't know about the Aed 10 minimum charge, or

2. He felt sorry for you, or

3. He was decent. Didn't think he was justified to charge you Aed 10 for such a short distance!!!!

No other explanation!

Or he was one of the few dumb @sses left who didn't go and get his meter updated !

desertdudeshj wrote:Or he was one of the few dumb @sses left who didn't go and get his meter updated !

You're right!! But he still could've charged 10 if he wanted to. The law is on his side! That's what happened to a friend of mine just after the announcement of the minumum charge law. Not sure though if the driver is allowed to do that before fixing his meter!!

RobbyG wrote:

rudeboy wrote:invest in a car.

You mean: Devest in a car

A car is the worst investment you can ever make. Not one asset falls harder in price than a car. Except for real estate in Dubai

My (used) cars were the best investment I ever made. Haven't needed a taxi in 4 years. Never had to deal with racist drivers (a phenomenon that started circa 2006), except outside the actual cab.

gtmash wrote:

RobbyG wrote:

rudeboy wrote:invest in a car.

You mean: Devest in a car

A car is the worst investment you can ever make. Not one asset falls harder in price than a car. Except for real estate in Dubai

My (used) cars were the best investment I ever made. Haven't needed a taxi in 4 years. Never had to deal with racist drivers (a phenomenon that started circa 2006), except outside the actual cab.

Same here haven't bought a car yet which I haven't sold for a good profit yet

Indeed, used cars are a different story. New ones are like squanderville.

The day you ride it out of the showroom, you lost 10 grand

I've never heard of anyone selling a car for a profit, the car always devalues as soon as it goes off the car lot.

kanelli wrote:I've never heard of anyone selling a car for a profit, the car always devalues as soon as it goes off the car lot.

Except if you buy after a collision and make minor repair somewhere in Sharjah industrial area.

lol. Before, taxi drivers avoid traffic congestions. Now they will start looking for it!
This rule says a lot about those who make them: lazy.

Red Chief wrote:

kanelli wrote:I've never heard of anyone selling a car for a profit, the car always devalues as soon as it goes off the car lot.

Except if you buy after a collision and make minor repair somewhere in Sharjah industrial area.

Than you are still de-vesting in your survivability after a new possible crash.

You should invest in your life and buy a proper car instead. Structural repairs are crucial for another lunatic hitting full speed in the back.

By the way Chief: I experienced it in my BMW. 70 kilometers an hour right in my back. Still it was repairable. You don't find that structural integrity in a Nissan Sunny from Sjarjah.

RobbyG wrote:By the way Chief: I experienced it in my BMW. 70 kilometers an hour right in my back. Still it was repairable. You don't find that structural integrity in a Nissan Sunny from Sjarjah.

Rob,
I haven't ever had any deal with crashed junks. I was talking about some habit of used-car dealers only. As for your car you told on DF about the fraud on the fast lane.
I hope nobody had been injured in the accident...

Red Chief wrote:

RobbyG wrote:By the way Chief: I experienced it in my BMW. 70 kilometers an hour right in my back. Still it was repairable. You don't find that structural integrity in a Nissan Sunny from Sjarjah.

Rob,
I haven't ever had any deal with crashed junks. I was talking about some habit of used-car dealers only. As for your car you told on DF about the fraud on the fast lane.
I hope nobody had been injured in the accident...

That I never experienced before in real life. I was a bit of 'hard talk'. Obviously it works but I'm not crazy Chief.

I was standing still on the highway behind a congestion in the rain. An older pensionada comes up in my back with full speed but he managed to brake to a moderate ~70 in my opinion. Lifted to foot of the brake as I see him coming in my rear mirror and I leaped forward instantly. No back issues.

Car was abused, but repairable. Strong car's those BM's. Worth buying for safety reasons.