Students on the job for 200 RTA apps

From making a payment with the mobile phone to practicing a road theory test; most of the services of the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) will become available as a smart phone app. More than 200 new applications will be launched within the next three years, promised the RTA on Sunday.

The RTA pledged its full support to the initiative of HH Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai into the smartest city in the world within three years.
 

“We now have 4 or 5 channels providing our services and we are introducing a new one, which is the mobile phone, so our customers can avail these services wherever and whenever they wish without going through the hassles of conventional procedures; an exercise poised to contribute to raising their satisfaction rating as well,” commented Ahmed Bahrozyan, CEO of the Licensing Agency at RTA.

“Many people in this region are used to go to a customer service desk. From a cultural point of view people may be more comfortable to go to the counter, but we want to change this,” he added.

Nine new services have already been launched, such as the practice theory test, where applicants for the road theory test can practice the test on a mobile app, water taxi services, where the commuter can book a water taxi and the NOL Basic transaction History, which summarises the recent transactions made by a commuter.

From this moment on new services will be launched every month, promised Bahrozyan, without mentioning a detailed agenda. “The apps will be launched in five waves, and we will organise targeted awareness campaigns to reach out to the people who would benefit from the services.”

The applications that are most used by the public are in service fields such as Salik, parking, and the Nol card; the services that are there for daily use and best reflects the lifestyle of residents in Dubai, said Bahrozyan.

One of the important steps forwards was the mobile Nol card, which allows commuters to swipe only their mobile phone in order to access the metro or bus. Soon, this technology will also be available in all taxis in Dubai.

“I think NFC is the future, and the RTA is moving along with this,” said Bahrozyan. However, the required NFC technology is not yet available on the iPhone, which forms an obstacle to the integration of the technology in the daily commute. “I have seen that there are jackets for the iPhone, which enable the technology to be used on this device. This would enable iPhone users to use our services,” suggested Bahrozyan.

One of the challenges is to make the services compatible for the devices on the local market, he continues to explain. There are 17 devices which are covered by majority of the people. We will physically test the services on these devices. This may be time consuming, but it is important to properly serve people in the region.”

At the same time, the RTA has vowed to take into account the population group that does not use a smartpone, Bahrozyan said. “There is over 50 per cent of the population is Dubai that is still using feature phones. These people should also be able to use our services, through SMS for example.”

Another challenge, he explained, is to create consistency in the level of service between the different channels. “This is not easy, as we depend on the standards of some partner organisations. We try our best to uphold the same service through every channel.”

Similarly, the smart applications of the RTA should be recognisable, he claims. The services should be easy to find and easy to recognise as being an RTA app, especially as there are many imitated applications on the market. “The RTA apps will have a unified design and common functionality features, so that people can tell that this is an RTA app.”

In the three years to follow, students of different universities will be assisting the RTA in the process. Interested students from local and international universities will be involved in the design, in making the apps user-friendly and in testing the apps.

It is worth-mentioning that the Smart Dubai initiative aims at transforming Dubai into the world’s smartest city in the upcoming three years through rolling out 100 initiatives and 1000 smart services to improve the quality of life in the city. The Smart Dubai initiative is built on six key pillars namely: smart economy, smart lifestyle, smart transportation, smart governance, smart environment, and smart generations; which revolve around three key thrusts namely: communication, integration and cooperation.