Jeddah taxis get mandatory meters
Ministry of Transport to mandate meters by Feb 2015
Taxi hailing service Easy Taxi, operating in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan within the Middle East, announced the implementation of meters in its cabs throughout the Kingdom, starting with its Jeddah fleet.
Easy Taxi enforced metering in Jeddah starting November 9th 2014, and will implement meters in its Riyadh fleet next.
The move follows the Saudi Ministry of Transport’s plans to make meters mandatory in taxis by February 2015 to standardise taxi services in the Kingdom.
“Metering is an excellent initiative. Not only does it improve transparency and help us gather data to improve our services, but it also standardises service delivery while safeguarding driver welfare,” Dr Mahmoud Fouz, CEO of Easy Taxi Middle East said.
“In many cases, haggling to a fixed amount is inequitable either for the passenger or the driver. We strongly support the Ministry of Transport in its plans to streamline public transport in the Kingdom, and have decided to meter all our cabs well in advance of the deadline.”
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Transport will link cab meters to a tracking system, which will be connected to the country’s ministries of Interior and Transport. In a second phase, the metering system is expected to be rolled out for all public transport vehicles, including student buses.
“Our customers will only pay for the distance they travel, while our drivers will not make losses in case of detours, heavy traffic or longer than expected journeys,” Dr Fouz added.
