Dubai Taxi

If you call Dubai Taxi, after the welcoming message and you are put on hold, you'll hear, "We apologize for the wait. All our customer service agents are busy. Please hold and we will be with you shortly. Your call is important to us....."

After you request for the taxi, it will probably take them at least 20 minutes to send it. Sometimes they are late for a few hours. Sometimes they don't show up at all.

I missed a clinic appointment once because of that. There were also numerous times when the taxi just didn't show up on time at all. And may I tell you that it is very hard to get a taxi in my area. My apartment building is in the middle of a sand-pit, surrounded by buildings still under construction. Therefore I can't just go downstairs and hail a cab, unless I am lucky or I wait till another taxi comes up to drop off passengers.

I have tried calling them an hour or even two before but sometimes they are still late or they play a no-show. But if you tell them you are going somewhere far away, then they will show up on time or even early cos they will earn more. Can't really blame the taxi drivers either. They have no basic salaries.

If the place you are going is having a traffic jam (Dubai roads are jammed up 24/7), then they will refuse to take you. Or they will pretend that they dunno the way. Or they will take the long way where there is no congestion but you will have to pay extra. Some cab drivers are just plain rude and you can actually feel your blood pressure rising rapidly as you are talking to them.

There's a supermarket near my place which is about a 15-minute walk away. I seldom go out so whenever I do, I will buy a lot at one go. Problem is, after having a whole trolley full of heavy groceries, there's no way I can walk home. But at this supermarket, there are virtually no taxis. Even if you are lucky enough to spot the odd taxi coming through the parking lot to drop off passengers, they probably won't take you cos they know you wanna go back to somewhere nearby. They didn't wanna waste their time only to earn AED6.

That's why sometimes I had to wait 2 hours before getting a taxi or private cab because I am helpless.

If you call for a cab during peak hours, the operator will tell you they can't guarantee that there will be a taxi for you because it's extremely congested out there.

I really don't see how our calls are important to them.