Payment system of taxi drivers under review
Mowasalat is reviewing the payment system of taxi drivers in Qatar to introduce more discipline in the sector.
Currently Mowasalat and other private companies operating taxis use two modes of payment, a senior official told The Peninsula newspaper.
There are drivers working on a monthly salary basis and others on a daily rental basis.
Recently a group of drivers of Al Million, the company that runs the maroon-roofed taxis, demanded a cut in the daily rentals, forcing the company to announce a slight reduction.
“We are studying whether these two modes of payment should continue. We may go for a unified system for all drivers,” Nasser Al Khanji, Mowasalat’s Executive Director for Support Services, said.
He said some drivers were upset by a new technology introduced by the company recently that prevents tampering of taxi meters.
There are different fare structures inside and outside the city and some drivers were manipulating the system by charging higher amounts that are applicable to only those travelling outside the city, he explained.
“This is no more possible, which means such drivers now earn less,” said Al Khanji. | Image: Sam Agnew in QL Flickr group
Do you use Karwa taxis often? What are your thoughts on this?
it is a good step, we started to feel that taxi drivers are one MAFIA controlled by their own. they play with the rates and pick up the passengers they want as well as the destinations they want.
Finally a well appreciated move by the higher management,,,,,now, i wil stop hiring private individual taxis :)
These Taxi drivers are helpless, there's fundamental wrong in the system applied by these profit motive taxi companies. Vehicles are given to these drivers for a daily rent of QAR265 (12 hours only) which is a very challenging target even for a well experienced driver midst heavy traffic. Whatever earned above this goes to the driver. So these helpless drivers in turn try to squeeze the maximum from their customers. Some drivers demand a fixed rate even before getting in to the car, some drivers don't accept long journey hires as they lose time on it and ultimately end up short of daily target. This is all because these companies are purely profit oriented and never thinks that this would have an impact on customers and inflation so on...this is what i have understood talking to these drivers. Company is the main culprit, further existing laws are not that effective to control these kind of exploiting companies.
personally I don't blame the drivers.. here the culprits are the operating companies and the authorities who allows such system without studying the needs of commuters. as some of the earlier commented gents.. why the authorities are not copying 'Dubai' model in the taxi system too???? on contrary to what I said, passengers also need to bring the unfair treatment of taxi's to social media and newspapers.
@Rambo31, savings or not, it doesn't justify them to cheat their passengers on the fares or not turn on their meter. Why did they accept the offer with the Taxi Company in the first place if they job offer is not good. Did they accept and then had a pretense that they can cheat their passengers? I am not blaming all of them, but they need to get their act straightened out, as it is creating a bad image for the company. If this continues, who wants to use the taxi services, this will just make it even more difficult for the company and the drivers.
Bring back the idea of flagging down cabs everywhere like the old days. Now you hardly see cabs on the roads especially if u need one, you need to call to reserve one. Having the UAE system of cabs makes more sense, there are cabs everywhere, you realize you need to go anywhere, just flag one down.
I remember the old days when the fare was cheap and there were cabs everywhere, good times.....
P.S. Fingers crossed for the metro, and i hear the buses are pretty good. Cheerios !
Drivers in Million & Al khabra have to pay huge rent.They have come from poor countries- Lanka,Bangladesh,Nepal,India.Hence what saving they can do if they have to pay too much rent.cost of living in qatar is very high,hence don't want to run on meters.Companies are interested only in the rent. also al million & al khabra have to fine (500QR) for any small dent in the car.of course Karwa camp is very good.
About time. The current pay structure is completely misguided because it places the drivers under ridiculous pressure to meet the rental fees. This has meant, like I am sure everyone has experienced, that they are insistent to the point of harassment on not using the meter in the hope they can squeeze a better fare out of you. I know we could simply not pay if the meter isn't on, but it takes an especially hard nosed individual to follow through on stiffing a driver. There is a perfectly simple way to solve the problem, which is the normal practice at least in Kuwait or Dubai, a percentage structure. It goes something along the lines of, first 100 riyals in fare, driver gets 10%, next 100 riyals, 20%, next 100 riyals 40%, etc.. The only remaining thing then is for the taxi's to be monitored. Whenever I asked those drivers, they are completely content, and show no signs of stress, and they switch on the meter without hesitation, and everyone is happy. I sincerely hope they bring that system in, then i might consider using Mowasalat again.
Good to hear about this... before when am still using taxi, taxi drivers always ask exorbitant rate... majority will ask a required fare before they will take you as a passenger... as example, from city center to la cigale hotel, they always charge me a fixed rate of either 20 or 25 QAR, then from la cigale going to gold souk, they charges a fixed rate of 20 QAR... passengers have no other choice but bite this type of racket since it is very hard to get a taxi here in Doha...
thats good move when it will be affected, Now a Days Passenger paid a lot then reals,
Change for improvement is welcome .....
Sun, 02.02.2014, 09.11 hrs ....
Great news and reform!