Most Dubai cabs not charging Salik fee

Most cabs in Dubai are not charging Salik, despite an announcement by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) that the emirate’s 8,000 taxis would start charging the toll from Tuesday, local daily Gulf News reported on Thursday.
 
According to the daily, meters of most taxis are yet to be synchronised to add the Salik toll automatically.
 
Four out of 15 taxi drivers confirmed that their taxis charged Salik by Wednesday afternoon — almost 40 hours after the Salik deadline to charge passengers was set by the RTA, the report said.
 
“We are upgrading the meters in a phased manner because we cannot take too many taxis out of the road at one time, which will mean there would be a scarcity of taxis on the roads,” Gulf News quoted Adel Mohammad Shakeri, Director of the Transportation System Department at the RTA’s Public Transport Agency as saying.
 
Around 500 meters are being upgraded at the RTA’s workshops and taxis with new meters will have stickers on their dashboards informing people of the Salik toll, he added.
 
The RTA has reintroduced Salik on taxis after four years. Salik charges were withdrawn in December 2008, following complaints about the manual entry of the toll by taxi drivers, which was causing confusion, with passengers suspecting the drivers of cheating them.