27 May 2015
Roads and Transport Authority - Zakia Suhail Al Musharrakh:
The Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) emerged as a winner in the 10th Ideas Arabia International Conference 2015 through the Smart Journeys initiative in the Customer Happiness category. The award was presented in a ceremony held recently by y the Dubai Quality Group under the honorary patronage of HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Emirates Airline & Group at Four Seasons Hotel at Jumeirah.

The award was accepted on behalf of the CEO of the DTC by Mohammed Yousef, Director of Corporate Affairs. On this occasion engineer Ahmed Khalfan Al Suwaidi, CEO of the DTC, congratulated and thanked all employees and cabbies of the DTC on clinching this prestigious award. "Winning this award brings on huge responsibilities on the DTC to continue with this excellence drive and play a leading role in boosting the profile of the DTC in the taxi sector along with its contribution to the sustained economic development. Such ambitions can only be achieved through improving the technical and operational efficiency, enhancing the corporate performance, and caring for the welfare and happiness of customers; which translate into stepping up the quality of service level, and accordingly raise customers satisfaction rating," he said.

"Scooping this award is a culmination of the corporate ideas that contribute to easing the life of community members; which we seek to achieve through the 3rd Strategic Goal of the RTA (Peoples Happiness). The Smart Journeys idea, which serves this noble objective, was a brainchild of Mustafa Shalabi, Senior Executive of Private Services who is daily engaged in handling incoming passengers traffic and has witnessed the gross increase in the demand for taxicabs in Dubai Airports. When he analyzed the daily results of customers waiting time matched with the availability of cabs at the Airport, the idea was conceived and further developed by a team from the DTC. The gist of the idea is to cut the waiting time for taxis in Dubai Airports and optimizing the use of taxis in the airport such that each taxicab is to be deployed on two different operation systems; the first is to deploy it within the taxi operation system in the airport at night, and the second is to transfer the same cab to perform the regular service during daytime. It was perceived that such a procedure would result in the provision of more taxicabs at Dubai Airports. Once implemented, the initiative resulted in reducing customer's waiting time from 30 minutes to 3 minutes, and contributed to raising the satisfaction of taxi users," said Al Suwaidi.

"The DTC manages 350 taxicabs deployed exclusively at the Dubai airports to serve incoming passengers in addition to 100 VIP taxis, 80 ladies and families taxis, and 7 taxicabs for the disabled. These vehicles lift passengers arriving through Dubai airports to any destination in the UAE around the clock. There are taxi ranks in Terminal 1, 2 and 3 at the Dubai International Airport as well as Al Maktoum International Airport, and the service is run by excellent cabbies and highly efficient staffs," continued Al Suwaidi.

"We have deployed 100 taxicabs in the first stage before beefing up the number to 175 taxicabs to keep up with the growing number of passengers arriving at Dubai airports. Consequently the DTC applied the initiative to Al Maktoum Airport in May last year; which resulted in achieving the same objectives i.e. slashing customers waiting time," added Al Suwaidi.

The CEO of DTC further noted that the Smart Journeys initiative had clinched multiple awards recently including the innovative idea award in the 2nd RTA's Excellence Award (Namoos), and the initiator of the idea was felicitated by HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA. The initiative had also bagged the Innovative Idea award in the 18th Dubai Government Excellence Program Awards in 2015 as well as UAE Ideas Award 2014.

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© Press Release 2015