Dubai Taxi Company (DTC), National Taxi, and Hala have extended their e-hailing partnership for another five years, committing more than 7,700 taxis to booking through the Careem app under the renewed terms.
The agreement builds on a relationship that dates to Hala’s 2019 launch, when the joint venture between the Roads and Transport Authority and Careem first brought Dubai’s licensed taxi fleets onto a private app at scale. Since then, nearly 120 million trips across DTC and National Taxi have been booked through the platform. Hala now operates with more than 26,000 captains and 13,000 taxis across the emirate.
The renewal is also tied to a specific regulatory goal: the RTA’s directive to shift 80 per cent of Dubai taxi trips to e-booking by 2030. Both parties say the partnership has been central to progress toward that target.
“This renewal marks an important next chapter in a partnership that has played a significant role in advancing the digital transformation of Dubai’s taxi sector. Together with Hala, we have expanded how customers access our fleet, strengthened the role of e-hailing across our operations, and created a more seamless and convenient mobility experience. Extending this agreement for another five years allows us to build on what we have achieved together, strengthen the integration between our services, and continue enhancing service quality and customer experience, while supporting Dubai’s ambitions for a more efficient and integrated mobility ecosystem,” Mansoor Rahma Alfalasi, Group CEO, Dubai Taxi Company said in a statement.
“Since 2019, Hala has grown from a pilot with a couple of thousand vehicles into one of the region’s most established e-hailing platforms, and DTC, along with our other partners, has been foundational to that journey. This partnership has been instrumental in revolutionising how residents and visitors access public transportation through e-hailing, and this renewal means we keep raising the bar for our customers by giving them faster and more reliable access to Dubai’s taxi network and an even better experience through the Careem app. And of course, none of it would be possible without our Captains. This collaboration has given us real ways to support them and invest back in meaningful ways,” Khaled Nuseibeh, CEO of Hala added.
For DTC, the deal extends digital distribution beyond street-hailing and improves fleet utilisation. For Hala, access to DTC’s scale has underpinned availability and wait times across the city.
