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Oman gives top priority to smart, efficient taxis: Official

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According to a top official from the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT), the government is determined to improve and raise the level of taxi services in the country.


Speaking to the Observer, Eng. Khamis bin Mohammed al Shamakhi, Undersecretary for Transport, said, "We focus a lot on streamlining taxi services as part of our plans to improve public transport, and the main objective is to ensure that all taxis should be metered (even street hail and ride taxis) through applications."


He said there have been challenges, but progress has been made. "Today, we have eight app-based taxi companies operating in the country."


Meanwhile, Harith al Maqbali, CEO of OTaxi, the first app-based taxi operator in the country, said, "The idea was born in 2014 and the first license was granted in 2018. After the struggle during the pandemic period, the company as well as the taxi market has been growing steadily.


OTaxi has over 5,000 drivers as partners and operates in Musandam, Al Batinah, Sharqiyah, and Salalah, besides Muscat.


He said, "The competition brings advantages to customers in terms of lower prices and quality of services offered by different companies. Competition pushes all players to the extreme levels in terms of providing services and accordingly, the waiting time for a taxi has now reduced to five or even three minutes in some parts of Muscat."


He said that more electric taxi vehicles will hit the market as part of the larger government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. "Right now, we are testing the EVs with two Tesla vehicles bought by us. We need more charging stations like every 2 to 3 km to encourage vehicle owners to shift to EVs."


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