Source: www.rta.ae
The Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) at the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has officially opened Taxi Drivers Training & Qualification Center at its Head Office, Muhaisnah 4 to train and qualify cabbies through various courses & lectures as well as practical & theoretical sessions in order to furnish them with the latest information to empower them to cope with challenges and difficulties encountered while performing their duties.
The opening event took place on Wednesday 7 December 2011.
The opening ceremony was attended by the CEO of Licensing Agency and Head of DTC Supervisory Committee Ahmed Bahrozyan, Acting CEO of DTC Yousef Al Ali, and DTC Advisor Abdul Aziz Malik in addition to several Directors & Managers of DTC, Public Transport Agency and RTA together with representatives of DTC’s franchise companies and stakeholders.
“It is a great honour to officially open the Taxi Drivers Training & Qualification Center affiliated to DTC’s Fleet Drivers Affairs Dep’t. This Center has been established in September 2007 and fitted with various equipment & programs that merited it to receive a plethora of recognition certificates & awards from various bodies including the membership of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in Britain; which is a non-profit seeking society aiming to promote safety, in the context of DTC’s endeavours to maintain safety & security and diffuse the security awareness,” said Bahrozyan.
“The Taxi Drivers Training & Qualification Center has also had the honour of being registered as the first training organization of public transport services in the UAE entitled as: Dubai Taxi Corporation Drivers Training & Qualification Center. The Center has been assessed by the RoSPA and Knowledge & Human Development Authority, and accordingly all the requisite training materials have been identified in line with the international standards.
The activity of the Center will focus on offering training about serving transport sector, building personal competencies, and providing new training vehicles. DTC is also the recipient of the ISO 9001 certification, Dubai Quality Appreciation Program (DQAP), and the Professional License of the Department of Economic Development, and Knowledge & Human Development Authority.
“H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA has recently endorsed the policy of training and qualifying cab drivers to be undertaken by both Franchising and Enforcement Department at Public Transport Agency and Fleet Drivers Affairs at Dubai Taxi Corporation. The Policy, which applies to all companies operating under the Taxi Franchising Sector in the Emirate of Dubai, aims at setting up conditions and provisions governing the selection and training of cab drivers in the Emirate of Dubai in an effort to achieve offence/accident-free mobility and accordingly boost taxi users’ satisfaction.”
“This policy includes the selection of driving instructors & cab drivers criteria, training methodology requirements, terms & conditions to obtain taxi driving profession practicing permit, types of cab drivers tests & inspections, supporting documents required for evaluation of drivers, evaluation phases, indicators measuring the effectiveness of policy application, roles & responsibilities of Fleet Drivers Affairs Department at the DTC, and Drivers Licensing Department, and Franchising & Enforcement Department at Public Transport Agency, among other details,” he added.
For his part, Yousef Al Ali, Acting CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation, said, “Dubai Taxi Corporation attaches great importance on providing Dubai taxi drivers with special training and awareness lectures to the highest and best international standards since it views them as ambassadors and front-end staff interacting with its customers. Therefore they should be trained to the best standards in order to empower them deliver a quality and unique service to all community segments.
Moreover, DTC is keen on delivering superior service to its customers spanning various community segments, as it seeks to rehabilitee cabbies with poor performance by subjecting them to training courses to upgrade their performance and rectify their mistakes. However, in the same time it will institute a penalty regime that may go as far as terminating the services of drivers whose mistakes exceed the permissible thresholds, as RTA considers drivers as ambassadors in view of their direct and daily interaction with the public from various community segments.”
“Dubai Taxi Corporation continuously seeks to develop and introduce a host of services to its employees in general and drivers in particular in an appreciation of their daily efforts made to achieve the optimal service standards to passengers and clients. New and senior cabbies therefore undergo comprehensive & intensive courses aligned with the latest world-class modules with a view to improving their performance, and enhancing their level of service offered.
DTC also holds a number of awareness programs & initiatives in coordination with other concerned bodies in three languages: Arabic, English and Urdu encompassing lectures and practical demos about the best traffic safety practices to be adopted during driving in order to ensure the safety of drivers, passengers and road users out of RTA’s vision of providing Safe & Smooth Transport for All.
“An integrated training program has been designed for trainees at the Center encompassing 240 training hours including 133 practical training hours, and 107 theoretical training hours. These modules cover a wide spectrum of the training standards in DTC service & operations which include safe driving, customer service, quality control, quality assurance, meters function, traffic accidents & offences, and other topics that can enable the driver by the end of the course to measure up to the required service delivery level in line with quality standards applicable at the international level, as well as those approved by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority.
“The training rates and timing have been set as follows: induction training for novice drivers for 30 days: 600 dirham, novice drivers assessment test (for one day): 75 dirham per day, and qualifying training session for the least revenue-generating drivers or most complaints-associated drivers for one day on defensive driving, and prevention of accidents: 75 dirham per day,” concluded Al Ali.
A presentation was made about the details & services of Drivers Training & Qualifying Center, and a tour was made to various sections and halls of the Center to review the training programs in place. The Center comprises five lecture halls named after falcons namely: Shaheen, Har, Aqaab, Falcon, and Bashiq.
