PHOTO
29 June 2016
Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA) is developing an Uber-style payment facility which will enable passengers to pay taxi, tram, metro and bus fare using a smartphone app, a senior executive told reporters on Wednesday.
"We are working on it," Adel Shakeri, director of public transportations systems at the RTA, said when asked if the authority intended to adopt a payment system similar to the service offered by limousine-booking providers such as Uber.
Shakeri did not give a timeline for when the service would be launched, but said that it would be available across all transport modes in the emirate through the existing smartphone app.
The transport authority already offers cashless payment systems through Nol prepaid cards for metro, bus and tram users. In February it said that 8,000 taxis had been fitted with an electronic payment system which allows passengers to pay for fares with their credit or Nol cards, according to a report by UAE daily Gulf News.
The card payment system is expected to be rolled out across the entire fleet of 9,500 taxis by the end of 2016, the newspaper said.Shakeri said last month that around 15,000 journeys had been paid for using the electronic card payment system.Public transport currently accounts for around 15 percent of all travel in the emirate, up from 6 percent in 2006, according to a report by Dubai-based Khaleej Times newspaper.
© Zawya 2016
Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA) is developing an Uber-style payment facility which will enable passengers to pay taxi, tram, metro and bus fare using a smartphone app, a senior executive told reporters on Wednesday.
"We are working on it," Adel Shakeri, director of public transportations systems at the RTA, said when asked if the authority intended to adopt a payment system similar to the service offered by limousine-booking providers such as Uber.
Shakeri did not give a timeline for when the service would be launched, but said that it would be available across all transport modes in the emirate through the existing smartphone app.
The transport authority already offers cashless payment systems through Nol prepaid cards for metro, bus and tram users. In February it said that 8,000 taxis had been fitted with an electronic payment system which allows passengers to pay for fares with their credit or Nol cards, according to a report by UAE daily Gulf News.
The card payment system is expected to be rolled out across the entire fleet of 9,500 taxis by the end of 2016, the newspaper said.Shakeri said last month that around 15,000 journeys had been paid for using the electronic card payment system.Public transport currently accounts for around 15 percent of all travel in the emirate, up from 6 percent in 2006, according to a report by Dubai-based Khaleej Times newspaper.
© Zawya 2016
