Dubai: New ride-hailing app to operate this year, offering another option for commuting

UAE residents and tourists will have another option to choose when it comes to ride-hailing apps later this year as Dubai Taxi Company (DTC) signed an agreement with European mobility super app Bolt at Gitex Global on Tuesday.

Mansoor Rahma Alfalasi, CEO of DTC, said this partnership is with one of the biggest e-hailing platforms in the world with operations in more than 500 cities and 200 million customers to create the UAE’s largest e-hailing platform.

Bolt’s platform will enable DTC to unlock a greater share of the Dh6 billion market opportunity presented by Dubai’s taxi and e-hailing sector.

“We are going to benefit from their database when it comes to customers they have. We, as asset provider, partnered with one of the biggest technology apps in the world. This is why we signed an agreement with Bolt to operate on their behalf through their platform. Hopefully, we will roll out the service before the end of the year with limousine cars and later on other taxis. After that we will study to expand beyond Dubai and add more services like car rentals or e-scooters,” Alfalasi told Khaleej Times in an interview at Gitex Global.

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He added that people from other platforms will shift to Bolt as DTC will carry out marketing campaigns. “Other ride-hailing platforms don’t own assets. In the case of DTC, we have 6,000 taxi and limousine cars. When we are going to shift to the delivery sector we have 2,000 bikes. This is how we are going to attract people to our platform,” he said.

Currently, Careem and Uber offer ride-hailing services to residents and tourists in the UAE.

“Since DTC operates half of the fleet of taxis in Dubai, this will give a good access time to reach customers. This will attract people to our platform,” Alfalasi said.

He elaborated that Dubai Taxi will also target tourists through Bolt’s big database of users.

“Whenever people reach Dubai and switch on mobile, they will see a popup message from Bolt that they’re are in Dubai. Plus, we are the sole operator at Dubai International Airport which is beneficial for us,” he added.

While commenting on self-driving taxis, he said they’re exploring this option and are in talks with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) for regulations.

“The future is the autonomous taxi, so we are also exploring it in the coming years. It needs some time because we need regulations to ensure that it is safe for people,” he added.

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