DOHA: Mowasalat is flooded with complaints from passengers about taxi drivers, with an increase in the number of cabs operated by Karwa and its franchisees, says a senior official.
Two private companies — Al Million and Al Ijarah — are currently operating more than 1,000 taxis, adding to the 2,000 plus Karwa cabs run by Mowasalat.
“We are getting an average of 200 complaints every day, some of which are serious. We are not able to take action on many complaints because the required details are not provided by the passengers concerned,” Ali Bahzad, director of Taxi and Limousine Department at Mowasalat told this daily yesterday.
He said the company had also seen an increase in complaints lodged by women passengers about misbehaviour by some taxi drivers. Recently The Peninsula carried a report quoting several women passengers saying they had been intimidated by some taxi drivers into paying more.
“We will investigate and take appropriate action if the passenger would give at least the number of the taxi involved and the place where the incident took place,” said Bahzad. He said many of the complaints were about the failure or reluctance of some taxi drivers to issue tickets to passengers.
“We have been advising people not to pay if they are not given a ticket after the journey. In case of any problem, they can just call the police,” said Bahzad.
“When we receive such complaints we talk with the operators and try to solve the issue,” said Bahzad. He, however, felt that disciplining drivers coming from different countries and environments had become a difficult task.
The Peninsula
