The Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) is focussing on artificial intelligence (AI) and the IoT as it plans its digital transformation for the next three years.

The DTC, a subsidiary of the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), has launched its plan for digital transformation until 2025. This strategy seeks to accomplish a host of goals highlighted by digital mobility, operation, financial sustainability, people’s happiness, and shaping the future.

The strategy is built on nine key drivers – AI, smart revenues, IoT, smart city, big data, governance, security, process automation and smart services. These drivers encompass 45 initiatives including an automated AI response chatbot for customers’ inquiries, voice virtual assistance at the call centre to respond to requests and inquiries, system for taxi demand prediction to distribute vehicles according to the entered data, and driver face recognition to verify the driver’s identity and comply with security measures if the vehicle is used by an unauthorised driver.

There is also an initiative to develop a customer voice recognition system to verify the customer’s identity and use augmented reality to improve the customer experience and promote DTC’s services. This includes the installation of onboard sensors and linking them to the internal systems to receive notifications before the occurrence of malfunctions, studying the set-up of an integrated system for registering companies supplying foreign workers on the supply platform, and strengthening communication with companies towards improving DTC’s performance in attracting and appointing drivers.

The smart revenue system includes the development of points of interest on the DTC app that provides business highlights, a school bus trip tracking system that lets parents track trips, simplifying and automating administrative procedures, and the ability to pay through the portal.

There is a plan to use IoT technology to develop a system for automating procedures and processes with AI.

DTC’s e-service can be integrated with smart city service sites. Big data includes a smart scale for rating drivers’ performance by clients using the DTC app. It also includes restructuring data in data centres to assist in the integration and analysis of data to support decision-making and foresee the future.

All services will be brought under DTC’s single platform, which facilitates the customer’s accessibility to DTC’s services, and another system that links DTC’s external and internal systems through secure channels to streamline the linking of new systems with existing systems.

An initiative focuses on protecting DTC’s database and monitoring systems to prevent disruptions caused by server downtime.

Other initiatives cater to the employees, such as introducing an attendance management system, collaborating with the Dubai government’s digital recruitment platform, and automating a smart educational system tailored for a smart driver learning system. It also includes a paperless initiative to reduce and automate DTC’s paper process transactions and develop a plan to cut down on the use of paper transactions and carbon emissions. 

Future transformation focuses on building a system to manage passenger movement for obtaining taxi and limousine services at Dubai airports, developing a driver airport queuing system for taxis and limousines, and constructing a virtual control centre that gives control centre staff access to the systems from any location. The strategy includes smart services concerned with the integration of customer relation management system, and developing and automating additional services for drivers, employees and suppliers.

More information on DTC can be found at www.dubaitaxi.ae.