“The Ministry of Transport and Communications is working on implementing a taxi meter project,” Saed Zakaria Aziz, head of Erbil’s transport and communications syndicate, told Rudaw on Thursday, adding that the government has been working on the initiative in the past year but has yet to set any rate for transportation service.
He also said the standardized rates will apply in all provinces of the Kurdistan Region.
The KRG plans to implement the project in the beginning of the new year and there are talks with a number of companies to provide taxis with the devices.
“The project is in the interest of taxi drivers and passengers because the drivers will make more money and the passengers will not feel like being charged extra money,” Aziz stated.
Lack of taxi meters in the Kurdistan Region often leads to inconsistent pricing, overcharging by drivers, and lengthy price negotiations and disputes.
Iraq’s transportation ministry is working on a similar project, planning to roll out a national digital system that aims to register all taxis in the country, the ministry said in a statement in June.
