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Car rental agencies face Salik dilemma

DUBAI — Three days after the launch of Salik, car rental agencies and their customers were in a dilemma yesterday as Salik tags had still not been provided to them.

Rental agencies said they had not even been given an assurance that their customers would not be fined or allowed time to have the tags fitted.

Autobahn General Manager Bibin Thomas said the company, with a fleet of 1,200 cars, had inquired about tags at the end of June and was told yesterday they would receive the tags in the evening.

“They’ve been saying everyday that we’ll get them in a day,” he said. “Obviously, they’re processing too many requests at the same time.”

He said customers had been telephoning the company continuously to get updates on the situation.

Hertz Operations Manager Sunil Kumar said the rental car agency had been working hard to fit Salik tags on its 6,000-odd fleet of cars.

However, despite applying for the tags on June 18, they received about 3,000 tags on Saturday for only short-term rentals and the RTA allowed Sunday for fixing the tags with the assurance of no fines.

Since then the two-day grace period has expired and the agency received an additional 3,000 tags for long-term leases yesterday.

“We’ve fitted about 75 to 80 per cent of the short-term leases,” he said. “We’ve done all our efforts to contact customers to have the tags fitted. (If they don’t do so) they will have to pay the fine.”

Kumar said the RTA should have allowed more time for fixing of tags.

“We haven’t received anything in writing to say they won’t be fined and I can’t log on to the web site to see if the accounts have any fines,” he said.

A Budget Rent-a-Car spokesperson described a “logistic nightmare” trying to fit the company’s 3,000 cars with Salik tags, which was completed by yesterday.

Their tags arrived on Thursday and employees worked through the weekend delivering tags and having customers bring their cars in.

Direct Rent-a-Car Manager Regie Farnandos said the company had been trying to organise tags for the 62-car fleet for two weeks but could get the tags only on Sunday.

The agency purchased the tags for 62 cars at a petrol station at about 10.30pm on Sunday and it was only yesterday morning that the agency was contacted by the RTA to say the tags were available.

Concord group chief appointee Mohammed Razwan said that till midday Sunday the company had not received tags for its fleet of 500 cars, adding that “they were expected soon.”

Rental agencies spoken to said cars would be charged a service fee for managing the accounts, usually Dh1 for short-term rentals and for long-term leases, it will be 10 per cent of the toll fees.

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