New silver taxi service for Western Region

As part of its endeavours to provide integrated services to the public in Abu Dhabi, the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars (TransAD) has announced on Saturday that it is gearing up to launch the taxi service (silver) in the Western Region, starting from September 1, 2013.

According to the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars, taxi trip tariffs will be the same applicable in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, and customers can benefit from the 24/7 automated taxi reservation facility available along with the service by calling the same Call Centre phone number (600 53 53 53).

Taxis will be operated by the same companies in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain: Al Ghazal Taxi, Arabia Taxi, CARS Taxi, Emirates Taxi, National Taxi, and Tawasul Taxi. Companies have conducted professional training for drivers who will be providing the service in the Western Region.

Mohamed Al Hosani, Director of Franchise and Licensing, the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars, said: “The new service addresses the needs of people in the Western Region as well as visitors and tourists, especially in light of anticipated growth of the Region and the mega developments being undertaken there, all aiming to raise the Western Region profile in social, economic and tourism aspects.”

“We will evaluate results of the service during the first phase, following which we will decide the number of taxis needed to ensure sufficient services. The centre is committed to study all suggestions and feedback by the public of the Western Region and service users in order to take them into consideration”, he added.

Early last year, the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars launched an interactive voice response IVR taxi booking system with an aim to provide the public with world-class, convenient and around-the-clock automated services. Taxi reservation calls can be made to the Call Centre (600 53 53 53), which will use global positioning system (GPS) to locate the taxi nearest to the caller’s address and send the requester an SMS with the dispatched taxi and driver information.