Hala is a joint venture between the RTA and Careem, which will enable customers to book RTA taxis through Careem platforms.
From September there will be a new option when you log onto your Careem app in Dubai – booking an Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) taxi.
You’ll need to choose the ‘Hala’ pilot option when hailing your ride in the Careem app.
The Hala service began small scale trials (with about 2,000 vehicles) in May, and over the test period the RTA rides received no less than four-stars (out of five); arriving, on average, only four and a half minutes after being hailed. Organisers hope to get this response time down to just three minutes by the official launch in September.
Where the Hala trial services are currently available to select on the Careem app as part of the trial, the option is described as ‘The most affordable ride in Dubai.’
Matar Al Tayer, Director General of the RTA outlines some further benefits of Hala “ease of finding a taxi … e-payment through the app … knowing trip route … being able to share trip with others, seeing the car and driver information, and ability to rate the service and driver.”
App users will also have more choice (luxury Lexus or cut-price Camry) and the added transparency of being able to see estimated journey cost on the app. But there are multiple benefits to the drivers too; the main one being less down time ‘seeking out the next fare.’
Everybody wins
There was no mention of ‘Uber’ during the brand unveiling; the company that acquired Careem with a 3.1 billion US dollars bid earlier this year. But as the global ride-hailing service said at the time in a message to its registered users in the region “both Uber and Careem will continue to operate as independent apps.”
The full official roll-out, will happen at some point this September, but there are is a limited Hala service currently available as part of the trial period. And we’re hella happy about that.
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