Cape Town - The Mobility Department has welcomed feedback by commuters using the province’s Blue Dot taxi service and said the comments would help them improve the service.
Mobility Department spokesperson Jandré Bakker was reacting to comments from commuters who said their complaints about the taxis go unheeded even though call centre numbers are prominently displayed on the taxis.
Bakker said the Blue Dot programme has about 850 green status taxis which are incentivised to improve their driving behaviour, with the aim of providing safe public transport for passengers.
Bakker said: “We have seen significant improvement in driver behaviour over the lifetime of the pilot project, since May 2021, including reduced speeding and harsh driving as well as positive sentiments from passengers because of improved safety on their daily commute.”
However, he said behaviour change took time and there had been significant improvements over the course of the programme, such as a 50% decline in speeding events, and a 30% decrease in harsh driving events such as rapid lane changing or harsh braking.
Asked how many complaints had been logged about the Blue Dot taxis, Bakker said that since the launch of the service they had received 26 000 user ratings with over 65% of passenger ratings being from average to very good.
He admitted, however, that the department tended to receive more negative feedback from other road users, although this varied across the province.
“In short the 26 000 ratings we received can be split between passengers or users of the service and other road users.”
Of other road users, he said 66% had rated behaviour as poor but that was in line with a general negative perception of minibus taxis by road users.
Bakker said to submit a rating or comment on Blue Dot services, users could dial *134*3047# (this is a free service) or WhatsApp “Hi” to 073 249 2152, referencing the taxi’s unique Blue Dot number.
Santaco Western Cape chairperson Mandla Hermanus said he was encouraged by the Blue Dot incentive which he said was working well.