RTA carpool website - 23 July 2008

The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched their carpooling website at www.sharekni.ae (not www.sharekni.com) where you can register for a carshare / carlift / carpooling permit, although you don't need one if you're car pooling with friends, family, or work colleagues according to their FAQ page. So it's not entirely clear what the objective of the new RTA car pool permit system is. It doesn't help that the RTA hasn't made up their minds about whether car shares are illegal or not if you don't register (and yet, before the RTA launched their car pool website registration system, they had said car pooling wasn't illegal).

• "Malek said those sharing cars with relatives and friends need not register" - Gulf News 23 July 2008 (Abdul Aziz Malek is CEO of the Dubai Taxi Agency at the RTA).
• "He warned that carpooling remained illegal for those that did not register." - The National, 23 July 2008, referring to Mohammed bin Fahad, the RTA acting director of planning and business development.

If you do register and get a carpool permit for car lifts in Dubai, it looks like you also have to register the names of your passengers (up to a maximum of 4), so you are then restricted to only sharing car lifts with the named passengers. The Dubai car pool permit is valid for 6 months at a time, and there is no charge for the permit - sign up on the RTA website.

The RTA sharekni.ae website FAQ says the carpool permit only applies to carpoolers with destinations in Dubai so presumably carpooling in the rest of the UAE is the same as it always was - try not to look like a private taxi or you risk getting a Dh 5000 fine for "illegal carpooling".

Another one of the Dubai RTA carpool FAQ says it's ok to contribute money towards petrol expenses, but not to charge money for giving someone a lift, as reported in the press also...

• "Parties may agree a fee between themselves or share costs." - Gulf News 23 July 2008

Despite what the RTA has said in the past, various comments appeared in media reports this morning (23 July 2008) saying that the RTA had legalised car pooling, even quoting RTA spokespersons.

• "RTA legalises car-pooling ..." - Gulf News headline 23 July 2008
• "Currently, RTA inspectors issue a Dh5,000 fine to motorists for car-pooling or running an illegal taxi" - Gulf News 23 July 2008
• "... Sharekni.ae, aims to make carpooling legal ... " - The National, 23 July 2008
• "First we address the illegality of carpooling ..." - Peyman Younes, a spokesman for the RTA, reported in The National 23 July 2008

As far as we know, the RTA had said several times in the past that car pooling / lift shares / car lifts were not illegal. It always was (and still is) private taxi services that were illegal in the UAE. Rewind the calendar slightly and we find ...

• " ... an RTA official ... explained that "car pooling" for monetary gain is illegal but sharing cars with colleagues going to the same location is allowed." - Gulf News 06 December 2007
• "We encourage car pooling ... " said Khalid Mohammad Hashim, Director of Planning and Business Development Department at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) - Gulf News 11 September 2007

Then again, maybe it was, except with friends ...

• "Anyone using a private car as a taxi or offering a car-pooling service is violating the law, which came into force in 2004," said Thani Saeed Al Falasi, Director of the Licensing and Quality Control Department at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) - Gulf News 09 October 2006
• "There are no restrictions on friends sharing a car without paying any money," - Mr Falasi again in the same Gulf News article.

Another report in the Gulf News 06 December 2007 found several carpoolers who had been fined 5000 dhs. One said he was picking up a friend, another was a tour agency fined for taking clients to a shopping center, another was someone who said he was sharing a car with friends. All three said they complained to the RTA but weren't listened to. According to someone who remained nameless, the RTA knows best. There's a complaint number also. Good luck.

• "Our inspectors are well trained and they know who is sharing a car with friends and who is running an illegal taxi," he said. He said motorists can always approach the RTA office or call the RTA call centre number 8009090 if they feel that they have been wrongly fined.