The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has adopted a plan for a gradual shift from conventional taxi’s street-hail to e-hail services, aiming for an 80 percent e-hail adoption rate in the coming years.
The decision stems from the success of Hala e-hailing rides which accounted for 30 percent of all taxi trips in Dubai in 2022.
Under the plan, the authority will allocate a fleet of taxis to provide the electronic booking service only, according to specific and clear mechanisms and indicators related to the service.
The Transport Company Hala will undertake the marketing of the electronic booking service through the development of new channels with the aim of attracting a greater number of users and incentive initiatives for drivers.
The plan includes defining areas in which only the electronic reservation service is available, providing parking spaces for regular taxi vehicles, and others related to electronic reservation vehicles, increasing parking spaces within areas with high demand, and determining these parking spaces on the smart applications of the authority and Hala Company.
Reservation Mechanism
The user downloads the “Careem” application via his mobile phone and creates an account for him, then the process of booking (Hala) vehicles is in the list of vehicle types, then confirming the location, specifying the destination location, choosing the payment method, then pressing the (Yalla) button, so that the customer receives Phone text message with driver and reservation details.
The e-reservation service has many features including confirming the reservation in less than 10 seconds, identifying the nearest vehicle, tracking the flight path, in addition to saving time and effort for vehicle drivers in external roaming and receiving user requests through e-reservation.
