300 more taxis join Karwa fleet

Let's wait and see how long these 300 new Camry cars will be remaining on the roads after one year!

Source: Gulf Times (17/5/10)

By: Ramesh Mathew

Mowasalat, AAB and Toyota officials at the induction of the new vehicles.

Mowasalat yesterday added 300 more Toyota Camry cars to its fleet in a major initiative aimed at strengthening the company’s Karwa taxi network.

At a function held at the company headquarters, chairman Jassim Saif al-Sulaiti said with the addition of the new cars the availability of taxis would improve in the country.

He justified the decision to induct the Camry cars saying a comparative study of other Gulf countries found Toyota to be the most popular vehicle in the taxi sector.

Jassim Al Sulaiti, the Chairman of Mowasalat.

Al-Sulaiti said the new taxis have been introduced not only to meet the increasing requirements of the passengers but also to improve the quality of the company’s services.

He said Toyota was the first company to provide 300 vehicles in a single batch when Mowasalat launched the taxi service in September 2004.

Al-Sulaiti said out of the 2,200 Karwa taxis, close to one-third were from Toyota. He said the availability of taxis has improved considerably over the last few months with more vehicles joining the company’s fleet.

The chairman added that 300 more Toyota cars would be added to the taxi network in the coming months.

Later, Mohamed A al-Dorani, general manager of Abdulla Abdulghani & Bros, the distributors of Toyota vehicles in Qatar, said his company has been a steady supplier of vehicles to various government departments, corporations, companies and other institutions and it enjoyed long-standing relations with most of its regular customers.

Ahmed Al-Mansouri, the "famous" Executive Director of Mowasalat.

Mowasalat executive director Ahmed Bu Sherbak al-Mansouri, director of business development Ahmed al-Ansari, director of taxi and limousine Ali Abdullah Behzad and fleet management director Mohamed Khoja also spoke at the function.

Ahmed Al-Ansari

Toyota’s general manager for production (Australia) John Docherty, Toyota Motor Corporation (Bahrain) chief representative Shuji Eguchi, group manager Andrew Willis, assistant manager Hiroki Ando, and AAB sales and marketing director R K Murugan, and Rent-A-Car manager Mazin Taha were among others present.

Mohd. Khoja, Fleet Management Manager.

Hybrid buses to be launched

As part of its ambitious expansion plans, Mowasalat will introduce eco-friendly hybrid buses for public transportation by the end of this year, company chairman Jassim Saif al-Sulaiti said.

He said the buses have undergone extensive tests their introduction would be a major boon to the country’s transport sector. He also hoped the hybrid buses would help reduce hydrocarbon emissions.

The chairman said the company currently has about 2,100 buses, which are used for public transportation, by schools, companies and for other purposes. He said the company has to keep pace with the rise in the country’s population. Mowasalat is building about 100 bus shelters outside Doha. Most of these are expected to be completed by this year, he said adding about 100 shelters have already been completed in different locations within the city limits.

Remark:

It is observed that this state-owned transport company used to have an average of five (5) accident cars per day. So you can imagine how many accident cars per month, and calculate how many taxis will most likely be off the roads in Qatar in three months' time if these accident or damaged cars were not repaired and deployed for service within a period of three months? The answer is approximately 450 taxis may be affected. No wonder there is always not sufficient taxis on the roads of Qatar even with the addition of 300 more Camry cars!