Makkah STATISTICS speak of about 60,000 taxis roaming the streets of Riyadh in a process that continues late into the night every day. These cars do not have any parking place in the city where people can call them on phone, like people all over the world do. Instead, cab drivers in the Kingdom are allowed to wander the streets in a haphazard manner to seek customers, thus adding to the crowd of motorists on the road and creating traffic chaos. Many of them do not follow the traffic rules. It is estimated that there are more than 35,000 taxis in Jeddah and close to that number in Dammam and other major cities of the Kingdom. The philosophy followed by taxi companies in the Kingdom is quite strange. They take a fixed amount of between SR130 and SR150 daily from the drivers, who can keep for themselves any extra earnings after all expenditure. The drivers are supposed to bear all expenses such as gasoline and car maintenance. The companies do not give the drivers any salary, which they have to find themselves by working extra hours and through tireless efforts. As a result, they are forced work until the late hours regardless of the extreme exhaustion and weariness. They have to roam the streets to find customers and make money. We have been talking about the need to Saudize taxi jobs for a long time. In fact, the Labor and Social Development Ministry decided to Saudize these jobs by 100 percent about 12 years ago but the decision was not implemented due to the opposition of taxi companies. The implementation of the decision was postponed several times for different reasons. Now the talk is focused on modernizing the taxi system and making it more organized. Under the new system, taxi companies will be linked to offices that connect them with customers through a smart phone app. The new system is expected to bring about a dramatic improvement in the operation of taxis in the country, ensuring greater security and comfort for passengers. All cabs will be registered under the Wasl system and their movement will be monitored electronically. The name of the passenger and driver will be registered and the passenger will be given the telephone number of the driver as well as the plate number of his car. Information about all parties involved will be known to passengers. This is to minimize security problems. The new system will contribute to reducing traffic congestion usually caused by taxi drivers. We can imagine the positive impact of preventing 60,000 taxis in Riyadh and 35,000 taxis in Jeddah from roaming the streets. It will certainly reduce the number of road accidents. The system will discourage many expats from taking jobs as taxi drivers, paving the way for the rapid Saudization of the sector. The big challenge for the Transport Authority in implementing the new taxi system will be to find enough parking space in these cities. The taxi parks should be located close to residential districts so that the cab drivers can reach clients without going through traffic bottlenecks. It will not be easy to find such parking areas in many districts of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. Creating big parking areas to accommodate a large number of taxis is a major challenge but I believe that these problems could be solved easily if there is good coordination between various government departments and if they act efficiently after removing all bureaucratic hurdles.
