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Dubai taxi drivers ordered to change Arabic roof-top signs

DUBAI — A taxi company has asked its drivers to immediately change their rooftop signs of ‘taxi’ from Arabic to English, failing which they would be fined Dh500.

Khaleej Times learnt that ‘the Cars Taxi’ company has issued such directions to its drivers. The notice has also been printed on cash receipts issued to drivers by the company, a copy of which has been obtained by Khaleej Times.

The print on the receipt reads, “If your rooftop sign is in Arabic, contact the meter department to change it, otherwise RTA will impose a fine of Dh500.”

Abdullah Sultan, General Manager of the Cars Taxi, however, denied issuance of such directions saying nothing of the sort had been communicated to drivers.

“Though I am not aware, the RTA could be trying to make the signs uniform because some taxis have them in English and others in Arabic. But our drivers have not been given any such instruction,” he added.

A driver of the taxi company said, “Some of our vehicles have these signs in Arabic and the company has printed the order on the receipts just to remind us have them changed.”

Ammar bin Tamim, Director of the Dubai Taxi Department and the Roads and Transport Authority also denied the report saying that all taxis in Dubai had signs in English only. “All the vehicles are brought in from Germany, and so the signs cannot be in Arabic. They are only in English,” he said. Taxis only in Sharjah have bilingual signs reading both in Arabic and English.

Meanwhile, general public has questioned the need of changing language of rooftop signs. “This is an Arabic-speaking country, and signs should be in Arabic. Why is English being stressed on?” questioned a commuter.