Sharjah taxi companies start recruiting

City taxi, one of the taxi companies operating in Sharjah said it has already started hiring new taxi drivers following mass resignations earlier this week.

Abdul Razak, Assistant General Manager of Cars Taxi Group told Emirates 24|7, “We have started hiring new drivers. Most of our taxis are already on the road. The impact of the resignations is minimal. Only 150 drivers from our company have resigned and these are the lazy ones,” he said.

But drivers from four taxi companies who were protesting said the resignations would run into several hundreds. “At City taxi alone we think more than 50 per cent of the drivers have quit. There is no point in staying on as the economics just would not work out. Following the introduction of the new rule, our salaries just dropped from about Dh3500 to below Dh2000,”said one driver.

Hundreds of cab drivers submitted their resignations after authorities failed to withdraw the order to deduct additional 52 fills per kilometer from their target.

Officials from the Ministry of Labour in Sharjah last week informed the drivers that those who were not willing to work could resign and leave. “There would be no change in the decision,” they had warned.

According to Razak, the company has had to bear the increased expenses of vehicle and insurance cost over the years while petrol price alone went up twice this year.

“The company’s expenditure has increased by almost 15 to 20 per cent while the business due to recession has dropped by 15 per cent,” he said and added, “If we accept their decision we will have to close down.”

Cabbies of Union Taxi were the first to protest on November 1 after the company decided to hike the collection target by more than 20 per cent. Later drivers from other companies joined in. Drivers complain their earnings would drop by almost Dh1,000 because of the new decision. Economic crisis and an increase in minimum fare of a taxi ride from Dh3 to Dh10 have already driven away many customers to more cheaper modes of transport, say cabbies.

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