Private firms bid to operate taxi service
An article in today's Peninsula indicates that Mowasalat will 'allow' compitition that may start operating early next year. However Mowasalat says it is not neccassarily aimed at increasing the supply of taxis on the streets but to increase the quality of the taxi service. It then goes on to say that it will increase the size of it's business when it sees fit. The paragraph below is also very telling:
"The competition, however, is not likely to result in lower fares because the tariff will be decided by Mowasalat. “The idea is to further improve the quality of taxi service by opening the sector to competition. Mowasalat will set standards for the service and monitor the performance of the new operator. There will be uniform taxi fares in the country, that will be decided by Mowasalat,” said Al Ansari."
So to my mind it seems that this is not competition at all but rather a Mowasalat franchise scheme.
Full article here:
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&sub...
Whether they decide the price or not, its good thing to hear as the number of taxis on the road will increse, which means better service to the customers.
Q - but they admit themselves they're not aiming to increase the number of cabs on the street, and as we all know there are a woefully inadequate number of cabs compared to the demand. So it's not like we can pick and choose which cab company we use. One may well be better in some way than another, but if demand is still severely outstripping supply then we'll take whatever is available, if anything.
if mowasalat is going to set the "standard" for the new taxi firms, what kind of change do we expect to happen then?
tallg : i'm assuming they'd compete on service (we've heard the complaints about Karwa never having taxi's available when you call them), the standard of vehicles, better drivers who know where stuff is, maybe some innovation (ladies only cabs like in dubai?), etc.
i don't think it's unusual to regulate the price? considering that taxi's are already pretty cheap in Qatar compared to other parts of the world....
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on every country it is considered that taxi and taxi drivers are the face of the country and it is very important and sinsitive since it is in direct touch with the first coming to the country such like visitors tourists etc...
throught my experince i hade I will bring to attention for the concerns about what is happining while giving a signal order to the drivier taxi ...
first you go inside the car you will hear some songs or news in a language that you do not understand any thing ...
and some times it is casset he put he is hearing .
then some they do not open q meter.
some they dare to ask you for an ammount without opining q meter.
some they put tarrif 0 in the morning and inside doha which is coming double ammount. and if you know you'll stop him he will say sorry or he'll say that he is renting this car and paying 260 or like that before he receive the car .. and some they put waiting you will say QR flashing on off this means waiting charges ...
and some they ask you to allow them to pick up another passenger while you r renting this taxi for your destination.
some they don't accept to wait saying that they cannot they have to go back to deliver car.
in some stations for the taxis , you'll find some private drivers beside the controll asking you to get ride with them private car.
and most of them they will not give you back your 75 dirhams or half riyal ...
some they talk on mobile while driving...
some cars list of pricing is not there ...
Please more responsibility especially with taxi service, this is agreat country we love and disserve the best service and it's nice civilized face as it is.
i suggest taxi woman like in some other countries lebanon .
2nd points on taxi drivers effect their work permit in qatar like in the traffice for the driving liscence.
i suggest arabic language is must for them to learn.
anew marketing policy with the drivers. and uniform dress with ID on the dress or in the car itself.
telephone hanged on the car only for drivers to complain directly with hotline to the taxi hotline complain follow up persons or departement.
elcectronic prepaid cards to be sold for the customers with good rates to pay electro .
and finally Good Bless qatar and bless you and wish all the best for this country.
More restrictions on 'competition'.
"ONLY government-run firms and publicly traded companies will be granted the franchise to the country’s new taxi company to be launched later this year.
A senior Mowasalat official said only government run and publicly traded companies are eligible because Qatar considers taxi services a utility. Taxis are an essential service to be provided to the residents with no profit motive, he said.
He said that only pre-registration bids have been invited to gauge interest in starting taxi operations. As one of the prerequisites, the companies should be able to provide a minimum of 400 cars, it is understood.
Foreign companies will not be allowed to run taxis.
“A number of new companies have been constituted with government participation in recent years and some of them have evinced interest in taxi operations,” he said."
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=289223&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."
mentioned it because many of the old orange taxis had to be reminded to start the meter. It's fairly common in Abu Dhabi too even though they cost peanuts anyway.
Well Dweller, I hear you, and stand corrected. having meters and using the meters are entirely different things.
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taxi drivers use the meters?
Here is another take on it.... many contries do have a universal taxi fare.. independent taxi drivers have the same meter installed on them.. this is beneficial to the consumer for there is one single standard. I buy this argument. the only loophole here is that the dominant service entity itself would decide the rates as opposed to an inedpendent government entity... just me two cents.
It looks like they want more cars on the road, without paying for the cars...
I'm sure they'll tell the franchisee to give them most of the money.
But not unlike when Dubai accepted a second telephone company (Du) in opposition to Etisalat the UAE federal phone company. The major shareholders in Du were the government plus.......... lo and behold..........Etisalat.
Feel like the owner of both competiting taxi's company are the same if all criteria's are the same. However implementation is very much welcome to improve the current dire situation of taxi's.
a bidding process will allow one company to run 400 taxis, monitored by Mowasalat according to their standards and price structure. Illegal taxis will not be brought into the fold.
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."
what is the intention of MOWASALAT /?
Is it from the customer point of view ? of business ??
I think their only intention is to curb the private illegal taxi.
Considering the shortage of Karwa taxis and the waiting clients in the sun, I thnk a parallel service should be excellent. If the parallel service from the private firsm reduce 10% of the taxi fare, I am sure, within 3 months KARWA taxis will be closed and all will prefer for the parallel company taxis
from what I understood, Mowasalat announced that private firms could bid for a "FRANCHISE" to the company. This would be to lessen the colorum (illegal) private transport by giving them a license to operate. I think this is the same procedure they've done to the orange taxis before....
I maybe wrong...
The tarrif will be decided by Mowasalat??? How the frick is that 'allowing' competition???