Saudi transport official says 16 companies licensed to operate in ride-hailing activity

Mueed Al Saeed, Assisting Vice President of Land Transport Regulation of the Public Transport Authority

Mueed Al Saeed, assisting vice president of Land Transport Regulation of the Public Transport Authority (PTA), said that the number of companies licensed to operate in ride-hailing activity currently stands at 16.

The service is now available in 60 cities rather than nine cities, Al Saeed said in an interview with Al-Ekhbariya TV.

During the past three years, 300 million trips were carried out with income above SAR 6 billion, the official added, indicating that there were 250,000 active Saudi drivers in December, including 4,000 females.

He added that the support includes providing incentives of SAR 3,000 every six months with the aim of professional stability, clarifying that obtaining the support is conditional upon being unemployed and carrying out a certain number of trips during the daily peak periods.

The Minister of Transport and chairman of the board of directors of PTA, Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, approved 100% localization of the ride-hailing activity, limiting work to nationals with respect to public and private vehicles or through facilities, according to data compiled by Argaam.