RTA intensifies penalties against unlicensed taxi drivers
Dubai (United Arab Emirates)
Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) decided to impose more stringent penalties against "passenger smugglers" (unlicensed taxi drivers), in collaboration with the Tourist Security Dep’t at Dubai Police General HQ, and Naturalization & Residency Attorney Office at Naturalization & Residency Dep’t in Dubai. The action was decided following site tours made last year by a team of inspectors from Franchise and Enforcement Dep’t at RTA Public Transport Agency to track down this phenomenon and refer the accused to the competent bodies.
The Director of Franchise & Enforcement at RTA Public Transport Agency Jawad Sajwani said that in coordination with Dubai Police General HQ and Naturalization & Residency Dep’t in Dubai, 13 individuals had been deported after being referred to the Office of the UAE Attorney General last year and found guilty of practicing passenger smuggling and other professions without knowledge of their sponsors. They were also ordered to pay the fines stipulated in RTA internal regulations; which amount to 5,000 dirham in the first occurrence and 10,000 dirham for a repeated infraction.
“The site teams of the Agency tasked with tracking & combating passenger smuggling are exerting big efforts to curb this practice; which grew into a phenomenon through time. This merited redoubling efforts to contain and eliminate it as it jeopardizes the quality of RTA taxi services and distorts the civilized and tourist profile of the emirate of Dubai.
“This phenomenon inflicts material losses on private franchise companies providing taxi service, and also slanders the corporate standing of the RTA as a service provider seeking to deliver the best services conforming to the latest methods and best practices worldwide.
“The joint crackdown campaigns launched in association with the concerned bodies resulted in taking deterrent measures against offenders, higher levels of compliance on the part of the general public as well as offenders, and more respect to inspectors, thanks to the cooperation of policemen with the inspectors of the Agency. It was noticeable during the campaign that the explicit and conventional methods of passenger smuggling have gradually disappeared and the public refrained from assembling at the places where that phenomenon was rampant” added Sajwani.
Sajwani thanked both the General HQ of Dubai Police, and Nationality & Naturalization Dep’t for cooperation with the inspectors of the Agency in combating passenger smuggling in several areas of Dubai, such as the Airport, hotels and commercial centers.
