Staff Report www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Dubai has recorded a 38 per cent increase in the number of registered vehicles in the three years from 2006 to 2009, according to the latest statistics, revealed by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) yesterday.
The total number of vehicles registered in Dubai has jumped from 740,187 in 2006 to 1,021,880 in 2009.
Though the ratio of increase was around 17 per cent from 2006 to 2008, it reduced to some three per cent in 2009, as only around 27,000 new vehicles were registered last year.
New licences
The RTA also recorded that some 164,729 new driving licences were issued in 2009, compared to 155,439 in 2006.
Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA said the authority also took a number of initiatives at its customer service centres to cope with the heavy flow of vehicles and licence transactions.
He said the RTA initiatives have also contributed to a reduction of complaints by more than 70 per cent. “We have reduced the customers waiting time from one hour, to less than 17 minutes at customer service centres,” he added.
Since the dedicated Licensing Agency at the RTA was established in 2008, it has focused on a ‘Customer First’ policy. It gets thousands of customers every day.
Initiatives
“The RTA has rolled out several initiatives and carried out improvements to upgrade customer services.
We improved service centres, providing a convenient environment for customers, opening new outlets for delivering licensing services, providing new services such as commercial licensing and launching more e-services,” Al Tayer added.
The RTA has completed e-link with more than 50 entities, such as the Ministry of the Interior, the General Department of Residency and Foreign Affairs, insurance companies and service providers, such as auto dealers, with the aim of easing transaction procedures.
This link contributed to shortening the transaction processing time.
For example, the typical time it takes to open a traffic file has been reduced from 12 minutes to just five minutes, besides minimising paper transactions such as paperless insurance policy service.
Al Tayer explained that the RTA implemented several new programmes to improve training of new drivers. It introduced training manuals for teaching drivers, instructors and examiners to ensure high driving standards.
Technical inspection
The RTA also developed vehicle-testing standards to ensure that any vehicle subjected to the technical inspection has passed the required tests to ensure its road worthiness from a technical point of view.
On the road: Driving demand
– 38 per cent increase in number of registered vehicles from 2006 to 2009 in Dubai
– 164,729 new driving licences were issued in 2009 compared to 155,439 in 2006
