Friday, November 6, 2009

Taxi drivers in Qatar complain of fewer customers

Source: The Peninsula -- 20/03/2009

A Karwa taxi driver waiting for customer.

While many residents complain about a shortage of taxis in the city, some drivers of Karwa taxis say they are not getting enough passengers now.

The Department of Traffic and Patrols has launched a crackdown against illegal cabs, but this does not seem to have caused an increase in the number of people using the Karwa taxis, operated by Mowasalat.

"We have seen a sudden drop in the number of passengers. Normally, after winter, we should have more customers. We have to pay a fixed amount to the company every day whether we earn that much or not. There days we don't make any profits, even if we work hard," lamented a driver.

He said the traffic jams in the city had made their job even more difficult. "Earlier, I used to earn at least QR2,000 a month after paying the company's share from the daily income. If the current situation continues, we are sure to lose," he added.

Some drivers were quick to attribute the fall in the number of passengers to the global economic downturn. "Earlier, we had a number of passengers going for outings and for late night parties. Such customers are very few these days," said a driver.

He agreed that high taxi fares could be a factor that prevented people from hailing a Karwa cab. This also explains the increasing popularity of the public buses not only among low-income workers but also among women and executives.

A senior official of Mowasalat, however, said yesterday that Karwa taxis were operating normally and no significant drop in the daily collection had been reported so far. He admitted that compared to the taxi service, the bus service had gained popularity in recent months.

Mowasalat has no immediate plans to go for further expansion of its fleet of taxis and buses, he said. "We are waiting for completion of the Karwa City project by next year. Any major expansion plan will be considered only after that," the official told The Peninsula.

The company is working on a plan to introduce more effective monitoring of its taxis and public buses, he added.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Without illegal cabs more people in Doha will suffer as there is always a shortage of legal taxis around. Don know what the government-owned transport company is doing with all the taxis they used to have? Damaged, sold or disappeared? Only God knows!!!

Anonymous said...

i want to inform those higher officials/officer of KARWA taxis that some of your taxi drivers are having the attitude of choosing the customer. if they knew you were just near but traffic was on their way, they will not accept the customer and tell to find other. I experienced this week here in mansoura area, driver will ask where place then they will think and give another reason. another problem with public taxi driver are those already are long-stayed in doha (i think) because they just drive so fast and overtaking others just to get early on the place where you want to, meaning to say some kind of reckless.
i want to report and complain and hope the authority will give good advice to the customer on how to reduce those some abusive king of driver, like for example to put the sticker on karwa if customer have a complaint. TO THE DRIVER OF PUBLIC TAXI PLATE NO. 107 ON MONDAY, 21ST OF JUNE 2010,time around 6pm, pls. don't argue with your customer if you want to pay higher bill then used the meter please. don't complain that the amount given to you is not enough as you dont know the bill and your meter is not running. DRIVERS will be given extra amount from us if YOU TREATED YOUR CUSTOMER RIGHT..it shows that Public taxi are not anymore convenience to used bcoz this kind of driver. pls. take a look of this situation whoever may concern on.

karwasalat said...

ATTENTION:
Anonymous (Wed Jun 23, 10:11:00 AM)

You may try your luck by contacting any of the following senior management personnel to lodge your complaints either by sending an e-mail or call up:

1) Mr Ali Bahzad -- Taxi & Limo Business Unit Director (in-charge of taxi operations)
Tel: 458-8686

E-mail: ABahzad@mowasalat.com

2) Mr. Yasser -- Call Centre Controller
Tel: 458-8699

3) Mr. Ahmad Ansari -- Business Development Director
(Monitoring service quality & customers feedback)
Tel: 458-8901

E-mail: AALAnsari@mowasalat.com

Good luck to you.

BLOG ADMINISTRATOR

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
I feel very bad to inform you that one of your taxi driver for Karwa Cab no : 2888 behaved in very bad & rude manner to me. As I was coming back from Airport LULU yesterday night around 9:00pm. I kept my luggage nad told him to wait only one minute as my person just coming. Not even waiting for 10 seconds, he told me in a very rude manner that I will not wait & also told me to take a another cab. Though we had a small quarrel, I still want this to bring in your notice.
This is just for your information to warn that person that not to behave like this any further with other passenger. As doing this will only harm that company’s reputation.
I hope that the appropriate action with be taken in the issue for good. And I also awaits for your reply in the matter.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
I feel very bad to inform you that one of your taxi driver for Karwa Cab no : 2888 behaved in very bad & rude manner to me. As I was coming back from Airport LULU yesterday night around 9:00pm. I kept my luggage nad told him to wait only one minute as my person just coming. Not even waiting for 10 seconds, he told me in a very rude manner that I will not wait & also told me to take a another cab. Though we had a small quarrel, I still want this to bring in your notice.
This is just for your information to warn that person that not to behave like this any further with other passenger. As doing this will only harm that company’s reputation.
I hope that the appropriate action with be taken in the issue for good. And I also awaits for your reply in the matter.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
I feel very bad to inform you that one of your taxi driver for Karwa Cab no : 2888 behaved in very bad & rude manner to me. As I was coming back from Airport LULU yesterday night around 9:00pm. I kept my luggage nad told him to wait only one minute as my person just coming. Not even waiting for 10 seconds, he told me in a very rude manner that I will not wait & also told me to take a another cab. Though we had a small quarrel, I still want this to bring in your notice.
This is just for your information to warn that person that not to behave like this any further with other passenger. As doing this will only harm that company’s reputation.
I hope that the appropriate action with be taken in the issue for good. And I also awaits for your reply in the matter.

Anonymous said...

i want to inform to the higher officials of KARWA taxis that some of your taxi drivers are having the attitude of choosing the customer.,if they knew you were just near to your destination,they will not accept the costumer and tell to find another..I experienced this night july 03 2011 around 11:30 pm here in LANDMARK, two of your drivers with the plate no.338 and plate no.2978 that kind of neglection..and an incident that my partner is not feeling well this time bec. she is "sick" and were just want to go home..1st taxi came no.338 and ask where we are going i tell him 'GARAFFA"..then when were going inside the taxi..he tell me that he's out of duty and then i tell him "why on the first place you dont tell to us"?..and we get off his taxi and he just stay there,,suddenly 2 costumer came then and ask the driver and they chatting after a second those costumer just get in the taxi and they go..wat i heard is they will go around "DOHA" or some place there..after that taxi no.2978 came same cenario..whats happening to your people? why they treat us like that..i mean were also paying,,and besides im in a emergency.what if something happen to my partner?..pls..do some action to your people...do some action!!!

Anonymous said...

Good Day!!!

As I reviewed some website with regards on the Karwa Taxi, i was surprised that i am not the only one who has complain with the service of your drivers and i am not quite sure if you are doing some actions with regards on this matter.

Nowadays, most of your drivers are destroying the good reputation of your company, i know that there's nothing wrong with the company but you have to consider that the attitudes of your drivers will definitely reflect on your name.

I have been in Qatar for more than 5 years that's why i know how to read the meter and most of your drivers are cheating as they are charging double most of the time. Instead putting the normal rate "1" in the tariff they are putting '0" which is the usual charge for out of Doha which I am not.

Some of them are just talking to the passenger personally and telling that they will not use the meter and we will just pay the normal charge because the company is taking too much and it's time for them to take the money back which is not a good behavior, because if i am tourist here in Qatar definitely it will leave a bad impression for the country.

I had reviewed your Goals and Objectives as well as the Values that you want to build in the company but i guess none of the above are met.

I hope this simple complaint will be auctioned to avoid any issue in the future because if not, most of my colleagues are willing to go to the ministry to raise this issue.

We don't care about the money they charge to us, we just want to be treated fairly.