Mariam Nihal
Saudi Gazette
Easy Taxi is one of the biggest taxi hailing apps in the world with over 12 million downloads. It is finally in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Gazette spoke to Dr Mahmoud Fouz, CEO at Easy Taxi Middle East in a bid to discover more about the app, its influence; expediency and of course it works as a miracle for women in Saudi Arabia who are not allowed to drive. With that being said, it is no surprise that more than 70% of users are women. We further raised questions about safety and hygiene factors both of which have been a crucial aspect for the app developers.
The app was initially launched in Riyadh late last year and came to Jeddah a couple of months ago. “The growth and level of demand has been amazing with requests even coming from Dammam, Khobar and Makkah! We are working tirelessly to open these new cities this year as well as Taif, Madinah and possibly Yanbu. Our mission is both ambitious and attainable.”
Talking about poor hygiene and deteriorating conditions of cabs in Saudi Arabia, he said Easy Taxi is trying to keep a clean and new fleet of cars and keeps drivers on a strict one-strike policy.
He said every single car is checked before being registered for cleanliness.
“We also reject drivers who don’t pay attention to personal hygiene. In addition, we have a one-strike policy with our participating drivers. That means, drivers are immediately blocked from our service if we receive a valid complaint from our customers. Further, we have a “mystery passenger” program where we constantly send out our own staff to test our service and evaluate our fleet.”
Discussing safety as a crucial issue, he said the company is hugely focused on ensuring a high level of service to passengers. Every time you book a cab, you receive the driver’s registration details with his name and number for safety purposes.
“We are offering our passengers an easy and convenient way to order a taxi which didn’t exist before the launch of Easy Taxi in Saudi Arabia.”
Easy Taxi was founded in Brazil in 2011. “It was born out of the frustration of the inefficiencies of the classical ways of hailing a taxi. The company was then acquired by German incubator Rocket Internet which led to a massive expansion in all emerging markets: first covering Latin America, then South East Asia and now Africa and the Middle East.” Fouz said governments around the world have been very supportive of the service as they recognize the huge benefit it brings to raise the quality standards.
“We are also aiming for a close partnership with the ministry of transportation in Saudi Arabia whose ongoing efforts we highly appreciate.” He believes the Kingdom is going through very exciting change in the transportation industry globally with apps like Easy Taxi disrupting the industry. “As more and more users will start using such services that enforce a strict follow-up on each driver, the service level will automatically rise as the drivers will have to improve or will lose their passengers.”
Currently, the drivers are predominantly expats. “We have received lots of interest from Asian and expat drivers, yet more and more Saudi drivers are joining our program.”
Easy Taxi will soon add cashless payment options so passengers can pay using their credit card.
“In addition, we are about to launch our corporate solution that allows companies to provide their employees with an easy and transparent way of booking taxis on the company’s account without having to get reimbursed for each trip. This will be particularly interesting for companies seeking to provide a convenient transportation solution for their female staff.”
Fouz believed that by actively interacting with taxi communities and passengers from around the world, in over 160 cities, Easy Taxi has clearly defined its purpose. “We realized that the best we could offer to our passengers is the convenience to book taxis anytime, anywhere and any place, always with high-quality service in mind.”
The app received excellent reviews and a rating of 4.5 out of 5 on the App store. “And even 4.6 out of 5 in the Play Store with more than 80k reviews globally.”
