Sarajevo taxi: Avoid illegal taxi drivers, vulnerable groups can count on us

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Sarajevo Taxi has readily welcomed the current situation with the coronavirus, and we have activated pre-prepared measures for such cases, it was announced today from Sarajevo Taxi. As they emphasize, all vehicles are disinfected at least 3 times a day, drivers use protective equipment, internal control points are organized to monitor disinfection and whether drivers adhere to protection measures, and drivers are provided with protective equipment.

Also, passengers are enabled contactless payment, which avoids contact with both the driver and the money.

"Following global trends, we have been working on technical solutions for 6 years, which have enabled us to be technically prepared for such a situation today. Our application tracks the movement of all drivers, enables additional communication, and in case a driver or passenger is infected with COVID-19 virus, we can provide competent authorities with all contacts and passengers who used that vehicle, or with how many drivers that passenger had contact with, thus helping the competent services to implement an effective quarantine for potentially infected persons.

In addition to this, since last year, in cooperation with UnicreditBank, we have developed our own in-app payment solution for taxi rides, which is now active in over 150 of our vehicles. This allows the client to pay for the ride without any contact; neither with the driver nor with the terminal in the vehicle. The client only has contact with their own phone. Payment in this way is currently recommended worldwide as a protective measure.

Sarajevo Taxi is the only one in Bosnia and Herzegovina with this solution, and the only taxi service with such a service.

Therefore, we appeal to our passengers and citizens to use the mojTaxi application (www.mojtaxi) for taxi rides, due to the aforementioned reasons," the Association states.

They emphasize that this is not only about safety and convenience in limiting contact, but also because they have received information from the field that a large number of illegal taxi drivers have appeared, some of them even illegally displaying markings suggesting they are Sarajevo Taxi vehicles, exploiting the current situation as no one is currently controlling it on the ground.

"Sarajevo Taxi distances itself from such occurrences and asks citizens to pay attention to whether it is actually a Sarajevo Taxi vehicle or a legal taxi vehicle at all. We also appeal to the competent authorities to act most strictly in preventing such occurrences, as we are doing everything in our power to ensure maximum passenger safety through daily multiple disinfections and through the control of our members via Sarajevo Taxi Internal Control, while at the same time we cannot know if illegal taxi vehicles provide such a level of disinfection and protection. Such illegal taxi drivers, by their behavior and by presenting themselves as Sarajevo Taxi, tarnish our association and endanger the health of citizens. For taxi calls, for your own safety, we ask citizens to use the application or call 1515, and to avoid using illegal taxi vehicles," states Sarajevo Taxi.

They have made an additional appeal to citizens, to ensure everyone's safety, that when using taxi vehicles, they should use the back seat and not sit in the front seat.

"Although we are taking all protective measures for both drivers and passengers, this measure is something that every passenger can do additionally. Sarajevo Taxi, as it has always done in the most difficult moments, places itself at the disposal of the citizens of Sarajevo, and especially vulnerable categories of the population during this pandemic. In case someone from this group of citizens needs transportation to the hospital, or to purchase groceries, all they need to do is call our Dispatch Center. Sarajevo Taxi is operating at full capacity, at the service of citizens, and will remain so in the coming period," it was announced today from Sarajevo Taxi.