Tripling of Al Ain's taxi fleet stalls



AL AIN // An official order to the city's seven silver taxi firms to triple their fleets by the end of the year appears to be stuck in the slow lane. Despite a requirement by TransAD, the taxi regulator, that the companies increase the number of cabs from 724 to 2,072, only 300 have been added since the order was issued in July. The companies have told TransAD there is a shortage of qualified drivers.

TransAD said yesterday that there were now 1,000 taxis in Al Ain, almost 50 per cent more than at the start of the summer. Both drivers and passengers have noticed the increase, but while passengers want even more cabs on the streets, the drivers say there are already enough. Rosemarie Cabahug, a 40-year-old Filipina beauty consultant, takes a taxi to work every morning. She said her waiting time had decreased dramatically.

"I'm very happy now," Mrs Cabahug said. "Before, there were not enough taxis. I usually had to wait 10 to 15 minutes for a taxi to take me to work, but now I find one in five minutes. I am pleased, but more taxis would be better." But for Uddab Nepali, 36, a Nepalese taxi driver, it has been much harder to find a fare recently. "There are already too many taxis in Al Ain," he said. "Doubling the number of taxis will mean I will have to work twice as hard and twice as long to meet my target.

"I drive 17 or 18 hours a day and still cannot meet my target. This is affecting my health and salary." Mr Nepali works for Abu Dhabi-based Tawasul, which sets its drivers a monthly target of Dh8,500 (US$2,300); those who meet the figure receive 20 per cent commission, but if they make less, they are paid a salary of only Dh1,000. "I have not been able to meet the target in the last two months and have been only getting paid Dh1,000 per month," Mr Nepali said. "I drove a taxi in Nepal for 20 years. I was making more money driving in Nepal than here. I wish I never came."

Mr Nepali wants to be transferred to Abu Dhabi, where, he says, there is a taxi shortage and more fares. But with TransAD pressing companies to triple their fleet in Al Ain, that is unlikely to happen. In July, Tawasul had 65 taxis operating in Al Ain, but has increased its fleet to 195. "We have surpassed what TransAD has required," said Zein el Abdein Farag, Tawasul's duty operations manager in Al Ain.

"Tawasul has tripled its Al Ain fleet and will be adding another 20 taxis each month until we reach 296 taxis by the end of the summer next year. "The cars are all ready, We just need to bring in more drivers from abroad." Cars Taxi was operating 60 vehicles in Al Ain before the summer but now has 83. A company spokesman said it would roll out at least another 117 over the next two months. Arabia Taxi has increased its fleet by 50 taxis since the summer from 150 to 200. A spokesman could not say how many more it would add over the next few months, but promised a marked increase.

Other companies, including Ghazal Transport and National Taxi, were unavailable for comment. ealghalib@thenational.ae

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

Teams in the EHL

White Bears, Al Ain Theebs, Dubai Mighty Camels, Abu Dhabi Storms, Abu Dhabi Scorpions and Vipers

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

THE DETAILS

Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5

Profile Periscope Media

Founder: Smeetha Ghosh, one co-founder (anonymous)

Launch year: 2020

Employees: four – plans to add another 10 by July 2021

Financing stage: $250,000 bootstrap funding, approaching VC firms this year

Investors: Co-founders

Company%C2%A0profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EOutsized%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2016%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAzeem%20Zainulbhai%2C%20Niclas%20Thelander%2C%20Anurag%20Bhalla%20and%20Johann%20van%20Niekerk%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EIndia%2C%20South%20Africa%2C%20South-East%20Asia%2C%20Mena%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Recruitment%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20raised%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20staff%20count%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2040%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeed%20and%20angel%20investors%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
  • Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
  • Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
  • Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
 
 
Unresolved crisis

Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.

Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.

The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.