All Dubai taxi bookings will soon be done only via the Hala app

Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) announced the transfer of its taxi booking and dispatch services to car-hailing app Careem’s Hala platform.

The Hala e-hailing system, a joint venture between RTA and Careem, will host the taxi booking system from December 7, RTA announced on Monday.

The move of migrating the service from an interactive voice response system to Hala on the Careem app is to improve the quality of customers’ experiences while booking taxis, a statement said.

“This step marks a paradigm shift of Dubai Taxi booking process from the call centre to Hala,” said Ahmed Bahrozyan, CEO, RTA’s public transport agency.

“Among the additional benefits that customers will enjoy from this innovative way of booking a Dubai taxi, is the ability to raise any questions or concerns directly via the Careem in-app chat. Safety and lost & found issues will remain to be handled by RTA’s Call Centre (8009090). Customers will also be able to book taxis from all over Dubai with a shorter estimated time of arrival (ETA),” he added.

“Hala customers will get a booking confirmation in less than 10 seconds and get a taxi in an average of 3.5 minutes,” said Clemence Dutertre, CEO, Hala.