HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), revealed that THE compliance OF public buses with the approved timetables had soared from 69% in 2015 to 74% in 2016.
Bus actual compliance with the scheduled journeys continued to clock 98% in 2015 and 2016. Taxi bookings executed through the Booking & Despatch Center amounted to 7.322 m bookings last year compared to 5.449 m bookings in 2015 recording a robust growth rate of 25.5%, explained Al Tayer.
“The broadening use of smart & e-systems in public buses and taxis has contributed to the integration of mass transit means in Dubai, improving the operational efficiency, reducing expenses, increasing compliance with timetables and bringing happiness to customers. Last year bus service saw a remarkable growth in bus ridership rising from 134.775 m riders in 2015 to 151.1 m riders in 2016, and the average number of monthly bus journeys made last year was 273,737 journeys,” said Al Tayer.
“The automated bus movement system (Transport Pulse) designed to the world’s top standards contributed to enhancing the communication between the control centre and bus drivers. It monitors the movement of 1514 buses over 274 routes, ensures the timely departure & arrival of buses at stations as per the timetable, and takes necessary action to control the performance & ensure the compliance with the set timetables.
“The Taxi Booking and Despatch Center at Transport Activities Monitoring Department, which handles all taxi booking calls and distributes them to franchise companies according to location, speed and other parameters based on a specific time indicator, has received about 7.8 m calls last year. The number compares well with the volume of calls handled in 2015, which was in the range of 7.2 m calls.
About 44% of calls last year were responded to through the automated system, and the response time to incoming calls was 30 seconds only. Such a response time is excellent given that the response time recorded in similar booking sections in countries like Canada is 45 seconds and the average call time is 53 seconds. Our average time of despatching a taxi to a customer is 13.85 minutes whereas it takes about 18 minutes to dispatch a taxi in Australia and 15 minutes in Canada. More info
Source: Dubai Media Office
