Dubai: 53% discount on 7 rides as e-hailing app Bolt launches in UAE on National Day
The discount will appeal to residents and visitors alike, as they will receive a 53 per cent discount on seven rides starting this Saturday, December 2 with the launch of Bolt in the UAE. The discount is currently on offer to mark the UAE’s 53rd National Day, which is celebrated today.
App users will be able to use the service up to December 15 for a maximum discount of 35 dirham for each ride. Bolt has over 60 million users. It operates in more than 600 cities across 50 countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Dubai users will interact with normal standard and XL rides initially, and later the premium ones and taxi services as well. However, no timeframe has been provided for the introduction of the taxi feature. The app allows customers to book a ride from a driver, monitor the driver, and make a payment.
DTC’s collaboration was announced with Bolts UAE launch. The Dubai taxi and e-hailing industry is valued at around Dh6 billion so this partnership will result in DTC's increased revenue growth.
Dubai Taxi Company’s CEO? Mansoor Alfalasi. And he states: “The first taxi fleet shall be composed of the licensed limousines fully-owned by our partner fleet operators who have registered with the Bolt platform, including DTC vehicles. The next phase of expansion will include the provision of taxi services through the application. The aim is to in the future expand to other emirates and explore other avenues like delivery services, e scooters and car rentals. ”
The plans of the Dubai government include the target of 80 percent of all taxi services to be offered by e-hailing apps within a few years. Bolt’s introduction into the Dubai community provides another “much-needed option” through a “hybrid system of mobility” that cuts across cars, taxis, micromobility among other solutions.
Shared mobility
Because of the many problems faced in the UAE, it is easier to adopt an alternative approach. Bolt’s strategy is to encourage people to abandon private vehicles and turn to shared ones. Even though the option isn’t currently available in Dubai, it could be pursued in the future.
In Dubai, they have seen a 10 percent growth of registered vehicles over the past two years, hence increasing the global averages of 2-4 percent.
Markus Villig, who is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bolt, had said that There are more than 3.5 million vehicles registered in the UAE and provided that these cars are being used, then the amount of time spent on the roads will increase and so arise traffic jams, accidents and pollution. Therefore, the Dubai Transit Corporation’s Bolt partnership will be beneficial for Dubai by enabling the launch of a new shared mobility service that eliminates the need for a personal vehicle for the residents of Dubai.”
“The launch of Bolt in Dubai is a significant moment for the company as we continue our expansion across the Middle East,” said Eduard Suchánek, the company’s regional manager Middle East and North Africa. Saudi Arabia has been one of the countries where the company had been operating since 2017, while Egypt was recently launched in March this year.
“We are excited to roll out our unique approach that focuses on the customer in the region where we have introduced very reasonable prices, faster waiting times and secure features on the app. It is the aim of every person at Bolt to work in the interest of this goal — to help build cities for people, not cars. For the past several decades, the focus has been to construct the cities for cars rather than people, resulting in excessive traffic and pollution and with more parking spaces being developed than parks" .
The drivers are screened and trained accurately where the company says, “all drivers are vetted and trained quite well”. Besides this, the app features in-app emergency assistance, trip anomaly detection (advanced AI powered safety feature), trip sharing, driver/rider unmatching (if you are paired by accident you can unmatch each other), speech to text, incident reporting and several others.
Comments