A company grouping seven key taxi firms in Abu Dhabi sacked nearly 200 cab drivers in the first eight months of 2014 after they were found guilty of molesting passengers, jumping the red lights and driving under the influence of alcohol.
TransAd, a private sector venture which controls more than 8,000 taxis in the capital, cited other reasons for the sacking of the drivers, mostly Asians, including bad behaviour, breach of trust and failure to report to work on time.
“We have terminated the services of around 200 drivers from the company after they were found to have committed such serious offences,” TransAD Director Mohammed Al Qamzi said, quoted by the Dubai-based Arabic language daily Al Bayan.
His figures showed TransAD received an average 2,000 complaints about the drivers per month last year but they dropped to less than 700 per month this year.
“We believe that the number of complaints is not high considering the number of trips made by the taxi cabs,” he said, adding that TransAD cabs made an average 5.5 million business trips per month during January-Aug this year.
He said TransAD, which was created nearly eight years ago, currently has around 8,000 drivers and aims to increase them to 10,000 by the end of 2014.