Oman Taxi Fares for the vehicles coloured orange and white, maybe metered from 2019. There are apparently 36,000 of these taxis in Oman with around 20,000 operating in Muscat.
This will mean that all taxis in Oman will have a type of metered fare system.
The proposal is that the fares will be 300baisa (Omani Rial 0.300) for the initial hire and 130baisa (Omani Rial 0.130)per kilometre; with a minimum fare of Rial Omani 1.000. No detail was given regarding the mini-buses which carry up to 13 passengers. A waiting fee of 50baisa per minute will be levied, though as most journeys are simply flagged down this is unlikely to need to be calculated. As most journeys are made sharing the taxi with other passengers, with passengers getting out and joining throughout the journey, the taxi fare is expected to be shared amongst passengers. This sharing will be extremely difficult to operate by meter as few journeys are made with the same passengers from start to finish, people flag the taxi down to get in or off at random places.
The minimum fare is 5 times higher than that for an individual passenger on a short journey.
UPDATE 6th Feb 2019
The government has announced (clarified) that although the taxis must have the meter activated at the start of a hire (journey) it is possible for passengers and the driver to agree the fare by negotiation, presumably done before the journey starts.
Therefore the situation is that while meters must by turned on for each journey (it’s not clear if this is reset each time a person enters a shared taxi) – the actual fare can be negotiated.
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