RTA's Customers Council discusses services improvement of transportation systems

To this effect a gathering was held in RTA Head Office chaired by Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, RTA Board Member & Head of Customers Council; Ahmed Mahboob, Director of Customers Service at RTA Corporate Administrative Support Services Sector; and Adel Shakiri, Director of Transportation Systems; and hordes of RTA external customers.

Starting off the gathering, Al Mulla commended the studious efforts made to uplift the caliber of services rendered to the public in general and clients in particular to bring them at par with the highest global standards in a diversified service portfolio.

"The Council is doing its level best to achieve customers satisfaction through holding regular gatherings that help figure out constructive views & suggestions to improve the business conduct and make concerted efforts to uplift various services in realization of RTA's strategic goals. All feasible suggestions fielded by customers are being routed to the respective officials to thrash out optimal solutions," said Al Mulla.

The Director of Transportation Systems Adel Shakiri made a visual presentation screening all services & projects of the Dep't such as Madinati, inquiry about bus timetables, real-time passenger information display monitors, and the Taxi Booking & Despatch Center.

Elaborating the services of the Taxi Booking & Despatch Center, Shakiri highlighted the role of the Center in serving customers by picking up their calls & dispatching cabs to the requested service points in Dubai, sending text messages from the Dubai Metro Stations to 4774 citing the code the Station Code, and the VIP service offering transit aboard deluxe taxicabs. He added that in the near future more taxicabs would be added to the Dubai Taxi fleet in order to cater to the needs of taxi users whose numbers were on the rise as reflected in the number of trips made by taxis in 2012 which amounted to 97 million trips.

Speaking about Wojhati service, Shakri said: "The service enables customers to check the schedules of public buses in Dubai Emirate either online or through inquiring about the specific timing of the required trips & destinations in order to help passengers make prior plans for their mobility on board mass transit means in Dubai.

"Inquiring about the bus timetables service informs public transit users about the timing of bus services at their locations; which can be availed through sending SMS to 5223 citing the Area Code and the customer will get the bus schedules on the same route," said Shakiri. He also spoke about the real-time information display monitors service where 89 monitors had been mounted on the Metro Stations, 46 monitors in Bus Stations, 43 monitors in the Air Conditioned Bus Shelters in addition to one monitor in the Dubai Mall. By September this year, about 400 monitors would be installed in all Bus Stops.

Discussions then opened between the team of the Council and customers where customers contributed valuable and diverse suggestions capable of enhancing the overall service offering such as mounting Hand Sanitizer Dispensers on board buses, assigning seating priority to ladies in front seats, fitting bus front seats with safety belts, children included, and providing additional seats to accommodate riders. They also suggested the construction of a Bus Station at the densely populated Baraha, displaying educative spots on the bus monitors highlighting basic instructions about the bus to passengers onboard, banning smoking in Bus Stops and Bus Stations, and arranging for an audio notice by bus drivers alerting passengers of the next destination.

Al Mulla stressed the importance of suggestions made by customers and promised to consider them positively through referring them to the concerned parties in order to take appropriate decisions thereon and implement suggestions which contribute to enhancing the role of mass transit means in Dubai Emirate.

Customers also inquired whether attending officials at the Booking & Despatch Center can follow up the timely arrival/delay of taxicabs to the service requesters. Here Shakiri responded that technological systems are being fitted to the Center to enable the work team in place track the movement of taxicabs and detect the on-time arrival/delay at destinations during the time frame set.