Booking and dispatch for Dubai limousines
Taxi and limousine app development for Dubai fleets that want direct bookings
Street taxis in Dubai now book through Hala, Bolt and Zed.
From AED 17,000excl. VATSee pricing →
- Airport, hotel and corporate jobs direct
- Busy chauffeurs never double-booked
- Expired permits blocked at dispatch
- Fixed AED price per piece, 40/40/20
- Code and IP yours on final payment
- ★ 4.9 on Google (76 reviews)Lucknow, India profile
- 200+ projects since 2017
- Top Rated on Upwork, 100% Job Success
Founder-led delivery
Overview
The work a licensed limousine fleet does best doesn't have to: the 06:00 airport transfer, the hotel guest, the corporate account, the four-hour hire. I build the booking app, chauffeur app and dispatch that bring those jobs to your own desk, and stop a chauffeur already on an aggregator trip being sent on yours. Dispatch plus a chauffeur app starts at AED 41,500 excluding VAT, fixed once the scope is agreed. You hold the RTA permits; the software checks them on every job.
By Ashish Sharma, founder · Updated 12 October 2026
Quick answer
What does RTA let a fleet's own booking app do, and which piece gets built first?
Taking bookings by smart app is an activity that needs PTA authorisation under Resolution No. 6 of 2016, as amended by No. 20 of 2021, and doing it without one is fined AED 5,000. Taxis booked by app charge RTA's fare, minimum AED 13; a limousine price is agreed and locked at booking. The software costs AED 17,000–108,000 for each passenger or chauffeur app and AED 24,500–245,000 for dispatch or a back office, excluding VAT, built in 4–16 weeks. Most fleets start with dispatch and the chauffeur app.
- Passenger and chauffeur apps: AED 17,000–108,000 each, 4–12 weeks.
- Dispatch, portal or back office: AED 24,500–245,000 each, 6–16 weeks.
- Typical start: dispatch plus chauffeur app, AED 41,500–353,000.
- Taxi jobs use RTA's app tariff; limousine prices lock on confirmation.
01of 10
Street taxis are spoken for. Pre-booked limousine work isn’t
Briefing a developer on "an app like Hala"? Read these five dates first. They show who already takes a Dubai street-taxi booking, and where the gap is.
| Date | What happened | Source | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug 2019 | Hala, the taxi e-hailing joint venture between RTA and Careem, officially launched | RTA | Dubai taxis became bookable inside Careem's app |
| 7 Dec 2019 | RTA moved taxi booking and dispatch from its phone (IVR) line to Hala; its call centre kept safety and lost-and-found | RTA notice, 11 Nov 2019 | Phone booking of RTA taxis ended |
| 24 Sep 2025 | Dubai Taxi Company (6,200 taxis) and Kabi by Al Ghurair (3,680) announced they would join Bolt and Zed; Dubai aims to move 80% of taxi trips to e-hailing | Khaleej Times | Two large fleets are committed to aggregators |
| 22 Oct 2025 | RTA announced revised fares for taxis booked by smart app, minimum AED 13 | Gulf News | An app taxi fare is RTA's to set |
| 19 Aug 2026 | Arabia Taxi's 1,607 Dubai vehicles to join Bolt through DTC, which reports 9,500+ taxis and 53 million taxi and limousine trips in 2025 | Gulf News | Consolidation is still running |
Street demand has owners now. What stays with a licensed limousine fleet is pre-booked work done to an agreement, and a job booked direct pays no platform commission. Planning a consumer Careem rival instead? Read the Careem question in the FAQs first; the food delivery page covers why the stores reject bought clone scripts.
02of 10
Six bookings your own desk should own, not leave to an aggregator
Each of these has its own rules. Squeeze them into one notes box on a generic ride request and your desk ends up running them by phone.
Airport pickup keyed to a flight number
The booker enters the flight, not a time. Free waiting starts from the actual landing, the chauffeur app shows the passenger's name for the arrivals board, and a delayed flight moves the job with it. The flight-status feed is a quoted line.
Hourly or as-directed hire
The agreement records the hours and the area covered. When the client wants another hour, the overtime price is shown and accepted on screen before the trip ends, not argued over on the invoice.
A hotel concierge desk booking for a guest
The desk has its own login and books under the guest's name, on the guest's card or the hotel's monthly account. The guest gets the chauffeur's name and plate on WhatsApp.
A corporate account
Each booking carries a cost centre, a PO number and an approver. Finance gets one monthly tax invoice per account instead of a stack of receipts.
Extra stops and child seats
A stop at Terminal 3 or a booster seat is priced into the agreement before dispatch. A change asked for on the road goes back to the customer first, so the luxury-cab record stays true.
A card hold that settles after the trip
Waiting time and stops are known only at drop-off, so the app holds an amount and captures the final fare afterwards, where your Stripe, Telr, PayTabs or N-Genius merchant account has authorise-and-capture enabled. Holds expire, often after about a week, so a transfer booked three weeks ahead saves the card and places the hold shortly before pickup. See card holds and partial capture and PayTabs vs Telr vs MyFatoorah.
None of these is exotic. Your desk does them by phone today. Fares go through your own gateway, not in-app purchase, since a ride is used outside the app (Apple Guideline 3.1.3(e)).
03of 10
What each piece of a fleet booking system does in Dubai
Every taxi-app sales page lists the same features. Here they are beside the part Dubai's rules change. Dispatch and the back office are the limousine booking software and fleet management side.
| Piece | Standard features | The Dubai-specific part | Price line (AED, excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passenger app | Fare estimate, live tracking and ETA, saved cards, ratings, trip share, SOS | RTA's table on taxi jobs; a locked agreed price on luxury-cab jobs | 17,000–108,000 |
| Chauffeur app | Job offers, waiting-time clock, earnings, document upload, number masking | Expired authorisation or car documents block new jobs; an aggregator-work status | 17,000–108,000 |
| Dispatch | Live map, manual and auto-assign, airport queue | Refuses cross-class jobs; holds drop-offs outside Dubai for approval | 24,500–245,000 |
| Hotel and corporate portal | Booker logins, approvals, monthly statements | Cost centre and PO on every trip; one tax invoice a month | 24,500–245,000 |
| Back office | Vehicle and driver records, fare tables, a heat map of direct bookings | PTA authorisation expiry; dated fare table from rta.ae; trip-data deletion | 24,500–245,000 |
| WhatsApp booking assistant | Repeat bookers book or change a trip in a chat | Writes into dispatch under the same checks | 4,900–59,000 |
Background location in the chauffeur app gets questioned at store review; the logistics page covers the permission wording. Passenger names, pickups and live locations are personal data under the PDPL (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021), so trip history needs a retention period.
I'd recommend Arabic on the passenger side for most fleets. It is a quoted line, and the bilingual QA pass checks the Arabic receipt and invoice line by line, because mixed Arabic text and AED amounts are where right-to-left layouts break. See UI/UX design in Dubai.
Have a project in mind?
Send a few lines on WhatsApp or get a fixed AED quote.
04of 10
What taxi dispatch software does when your chauffeurs also drive for Uber, Careem and Bolt
Taxi dispatch software takes each booking, checks which car and chauffeur can lawfully do it, and assigns the job. In a Dubai limousine fleet the same chauffeurs often take aggregator trips, so dispatch must know who is free before offering a direct job.
Availability without any integration
Each chauffeur is marked on an app trip, free for direct work, or off shift, set by the chauffeur or the dispatcher. Direct jobs go only to free chauffeurs. It works on day one and needs nothing from Uber, Careem or Bolt.
Checks on every assignment
Dispatch checks the car's class, the chauffeur's authorisation expiry and whether the drop-off leaves Dubai: the Schedule 2 checks below, run every time rather than remembered.
An automatic aggregator link
Pulling aggregator jobs in needs that platform to grant access, so I promise nothing until it does. If one does, what the connection covers is written into the scope before any money changes hands.
05of 10
RTA fines for taxi and limousine apps, and the check that prevents each
When I scope a fleet's dispatch, the first document I ask for is the authorisation certificate, not the logo. Its reference and expiry decide whether public booking can switch on. Schedule 2 of Resolution No. 20 of 2021 then reads as a list of things the software should block.
| Schedule 2 item | Fine (AED) | What the app or dispatch does |
|---|---|---|
| 9: on-demand service by phone, electronic media or app without authorisation | 5,000 | Public booking stays off until the PTA authorisation reference and expiry are entered |
| 13: swapping a luxury cab and a taxicab | 10,000 | Each vehicle has one class; dispatch refuses a cross-class job |
| 15: not complying with the prescribed fare | 500 per trip | Taxi jobs price only from RTA's fare table, with no multiplier field |
| 10: meter not run at the start of a trip | 2,500 | On metered jobs the meter sets the fare; the app shows an estimate |
| 12: an establishment running a taxi or luxury cab without a taximeter, or tampering with one | 10,000 | Each vehicle record shows whether a meter is fitted |
| 7: carrying passengers out of the emirate without PTA approval | 5,000 | A drop-off outside Dubai holds the booking for an approval check |
| 6 and 8: cars not licensed in Dubai; promoting unlicensed car services | 5,000 each | Only Dubai-registered vehicles with in-date documents are listed |
| 4 and 14: breaching the authorisation; failing RTA requirements | 5,000 each | Driver authorisation numbers (issued after approved training) and expiries are stored; expired drivers get no jobs |
Fines are capped at AED 50,000 a year for an establishment (Article 7(b)), but RTA can also suspend the activity, impound a vehicle for up to six months or revoke the authorisation, with a year's wait for a new one (Article 7(c)–(d)). These checks belong in software, not a night dispatcher's memory.
Tell me how your desk checks permits today and I'll show you which of these fines your dispatch would block.
06of 10
Taxicab or luxury cab decides your fare engine
A taxicab carries passengers for the fare RTA prescribes, with the meter running. A luxury cab (a limousine) works to an agreement fixing the fare, duration and destination before the trip. So a taxi app reads RTA's tariff, and a limousine app records an agreement per booking. The definitions are in Article 1 of Resolution No. 6 of 2016 as amended by No. 20 of 2021; the Arabic text prevails.
A taxicab: the meter sets the fare
Not running it from the start of a trip is fined under Schedule 2, item 10. The app may show an estimate, nothing more.
A luxury cab: the booking record is the agreement
If the customer changes the drop-off, the app saves a new version with their acceptance and keeps the first, so you can show RTA both. Item 12 names luxury cabs as well as taxis for running without a taximeter, so ask RTA whether your class must carry one; if so, the record holds the agreed price and the meter reading.
Which resolution covers you
Resolution No. 47 of 2017, on vehicle transport and rental, may also apply to some operators. Your PRO should confirm with RTA which one covers yours.
| Field | What it holds | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Agreed fare, duration, destination | Your price; four hours ending 18:00; DIFC to Terminal 3 | The three terms the agreement fixes |
| Vehicle class and plate | Luxury cab, registered in Dubai | Items 6, 8 and 13 |
| PTA and driver authorisation | References and expiry dates | Items 4 and 9; Article 5 |
| Customer confirmation | Timestamp and channel | Terms agreed before dispatch |
| Amendments | Each version with the customer's acceptance | Keeps the record true |
07of 10
RTA’s app-booking fares since 22 October 2025, and why a Dubai taxi quote has no surge setting
Since 22 October 2025 RTA has set the fare for taxis booked through a smart app: a minimum of AED 13, plus a booking fee and flagfall that vary by time of day. Surge pricing is standard on most taxi-app sales pages. On a Dubai taxicab, charging off the prescribed fare is fined AED 500 a trip (item 15).
| Day and window | Booking fee | Flagfall |
|---|---|---|
| Mon–Thu peak: 08:00–09:59 and 16:00–19:59 | AED 7.50 | AED 5 |
| Mon–Thu off-peak: 06:00–07:59 and 10:00–15:59 | AED 4 | AED 5 |
| Mon–Thu night: 22:00–05:59 | AED 4.50 | AED 5.50 |
| Friday peak: 08:00–09:59 and 16:00–21:59 | AED 7.50 | AED 5 |
| Friday off-peak: 06:00–07:59 and 10:00–15:59 | AED 4 | AED 5 |
| Saturday and Sunday peak: 16:00–21:59 | AED 7.50 | AED 5 |
| Saturday and Sunday off-peak: 06:00–15:59 | AED 4 | AED 5 |
| Friday to Sunday late evening: 22:00–23:59 | AED 7.50 | AED 5.50 |
| Friday to Sunday night: 00:00–05:59 | AED 4.50 | AED 5.50 |
Gulf News gives no rate for Monday to Thursday 20:00–21:59, and RTA can revise the table, so nothing is hard-coded: the back office keeps a dated fare table filled from rta.ae, and a revision is an edit, not an app release. Check rta.ae again before launch.
Limousine fares are yours to set by class, hours or time of day, and they lock when the customer confirms. Your quote shouldn't have a surge setting in it. Mine doesn't.
Have a project in mind?
Send a few lines on WhatsApp or get a fixed AED quote.
08of 10
Floor or ceiling: six things that place each AED line
Dispatch first: it's the screen your team watches all shift. I set every line's price myself. Once we've both signed the scope, that figure is fixed; it moves only if the scope does, say when you add the flight feed or a second booking type. Dispatch plus the chauffeur app comes to AED 41,500–353,000 excluding VAT; the passenger app and portal can follow.
| What changes the price | Keeps it near the floor | Pushes it towards the top |
|---|---|---|
| Booking types | One flow, such as airport pickups for one hotel desk | All six, including as-directed hire |
| Who logs in | Your dispatchers only | Hotel desks and corporate bookers with approvals |
| Invoicing | Card payment per trip | Monthly corporate tax invoices with cost centres |
| Outside feeds | None | Flight status, a card hold, an RTA data link |
| Dispatch rules | Manual assignment | Night auto-assign by class, distance and idle time |
| Languages | English | Arabic right-to-left screens |
For comparison, on 12 October 2026 Appinventiv published a basic tier of USD 65K–85K (about AED 239K–312K), with its own tables disagreeing on the mid tier. Tenet (June 2025, before the new app fares) gives AED 100K–400K with no timeline. Fluper and Code Brew show form brackets; Techanic, Peppy Ocean and A2 Solutions publish no figure. If a quote carries an "RTA integration" line, ask what it contains: RTA sets any data link during authorisation.
09of 10
Your cars run all night; my working day ends at 17:30 GST
I'm in Lucknow, India, and my WhatsApp number is Indian: +91 92771 84741. Codingclave Development LLP has been founder-led since 2017 and has no office or legal entity in the UAE. More on that model: outsourcing from Dubai to India.
Hours, and the 03:00 airport run
Monday to Saturday, 08:30–17:30 Gulf Standard Time: 8.5 hours of a 9:00–18:00 UAE day, Saturday included. A 03:00 pickup falls outside that, so your dispatcher runs the night alone, with auto-assign rules, an override on every job and nothing that needs a developer.
Proof, before the money moves
4.9 on Google (76 reviews), 200+ projects since 2017, Top Rated on Upwork (reviews). I have no taxi app to show you, so judge the work as it arrives: the mid-project milestone we agree can be test builds on your own store accounts.
Money, code and logins
The build is paid in three parts: 40% when work begins, another 40% at the mid-project milestone we pick together, and 20% once the fleet goes live. Each invoice is in dirhams and gets settled by bank transfer into our AED account, much as your corporate accounts settle their monthly statement with you. When that last 20% clears, the source code and IP of dispatch and both apps belong to your company. Store, gateway, cloud and domain accounts are in its name from day one, and at launch I hand over every login I created.
Where these rules and figures come from
Written by Ashish Sharma on 12 October 2026 from the resolution on the Dubai Legislation Portal, RTA's Hala notice, Gulf News and Khaleej Times reports, and the competitor pages named above. Sources are listed below.
10of 10
Outside Dubai: Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and trips across emirate lines
Trips that leave Dubai
These need PTA approval (Schedule 2, item 7: AED 5,000). Each emirate is a service area in the app, switched on only when an approval covers it.
Abu Dhabi
The Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) regulates taxis and ride-hailing there, and a Dubai authorisation doesn't extend to it. Abu Dhabi stays off until you hold ITC's approval.
Sharjah
Sharjah's taxis and limousines fall under its own Roads and Transport Authority. I'd scope a Sharjah service area only after you hold its approval.
Pricing in AED
One AED line per piece of the fleet system
Each piece is its own line; the table above shows what moves it within its band.
Mobile app
AED 17,000 – AED 108,000
Excl. VATMobile app (iOS + Android, Flutter or React Native) · Typical timeline: 4–12 weeks
Passenger app or chauffeur app, each its own line, 4–12 weeks.
Get a quote for this plan
Custom software, portal or SaaS
Dispatch, the hotel and corporate portal, or the back office, each its own line, 6–16 weeks. See custom software cost in Dubai.
AI chatbot (website or WhatsApp)
WhatsApp booking assistant writing into dispatch, 2–6 weeks. See AI chatbot development.
Flight-status feed for airport pickups
Landing times pulled into dispatch.
Card hold and settlement on your gateway
Where your merchant account allows authorise-and-capture.
RTA data link, if RTA specifies one
Scoped once RTA states what it needs.
Aggregator connection, if the platform grants access
Priced once access and documentation exist.
Arabic right-to-left screens
Bilingual QA pass included.
App maintenance plan (OS and store updates, monitoring, small changes)
Monthly upkeep once the apps are live: new iOS and Android versions, store policy changes, monitoring of dispatch and the chauffeur app, and small changes your desk asks for. See app maintenance.
- Fixed price in AED
- Free scoping call
- No obligation
Lines without a band get their AED figure after a short discovery call about your fleet. A misrouted job, a wrong receipt or any other bug in our build during the six months after launch gets fixed at no charge; the AED 1,500–4,500 monthly plan covers what comes after.
Prices are in UAE dirhams (AED) and exclude VAT. Project prices are converted from our GBP price list at GBP 1 = AED 4.90 (11 October 2026) and rounded; monthly plans are set in AED. Codingclave is an India-based supplier and is not registered for UAE VAT. VAT-registered UAE businesses usually account for VAT on imported services under the reverse-charge mechanism; confirm with your tax adviser.
Fixed AED quote
Pick the piece your fleet needs most
Send your fleet size, the share of trips from aggregators, how you book direct today and what you want coming to you. I'll reply with the pieces I'd build first, each with an AED line.
Ashish Sharma
Founder, Codingclave
Ashish or the team replies on WhatsApp or email during our hours, Mon–Sat, 8:30am–5:30pm GST.
- ★ 4.9 on Google (76 reviews) · Lucknow, India profile
- 200+ projects since 2017
- Top Rated on Upwork, 100% Job Success
- Founder-led delivery
Prefer WhatsApp?
WhatsApp AshishHow it works
Your PTA authorisation comes before any code
Plan on 6–16 weeks for dispatch, with the chauffeur app built alongside.
Licence and PTA authorisation (yours)
Your company or PRO holds the commercial licence and the PTA authorisation. I apply for no RTA or ITC permit. If authorisation is pending, dispatch and the back office can come first.
Your fleet profile on WhatsApp
Car count, vehicle classes, the aggregator share, how you book direct today, and the bookings you want.
Your PTA file, mapped to dispatch checks
Authorisation expiry, vehicle classes, driver authorisation numbers and permitted emirates become dispatch rules.
A fixed quote, line by line
One AED figure per piece and a signed scope, then the first payment.
Back office and dispatch, then the apps
Chauffeur app next, then passenger app and portal. The second payment falls at the milestone we agree.
A pilot on one booking type
I'd rather switch on one booking type for one hotel desk than move the whole fleet at once. A wrong flight-delay rule then shows up on a handful of jobs, not a Friday's airport runs.
Whole fleet live, code and logins handed over
The final payment, every login and the code handed over; the six-month window for free bug fixes opens.
FAQ
Questions UAE businesses ask us
Can’t see yours? Ask Ashish directly — you’ll get a straight answer, not a sales script.
Ask Ashish directly
How much does it cost to develop a taxi booking app in Dubai?
Do I need an RTA permit to take taxi or limousine bookings through my own app?
Can a taxi app in Dubai charge surge prices?
Which taxi apps work in Dubai?
Can I build an app like Careem and start an Uber-style business in Dubai?
When could a limousine booking app go live, once store review is counted?
How do I start a limousine company in Dubai, and what does the licence cost?
How do I choose a taxi app development company in Dubai?
Ashish Sharma · Founder
Which jobs would you take back from the aggregators?
Send your fleet size, the share of trips from aggregators, how you book direct today and what you want coming to you. I'll reply with the pieces I'd build first, each with an AED line.
- WhatsApp us or fill in the form
- Free scoping call
- Fixed AED quote, no obligation
- ★ 4.9 on Google (76 reviews) · Lucknow, India profile
- 200+ projects since 2017
- Top Rated on Upwork, 100% Job Success
- Founder-led delivery
Keep exploring
- UAE
Codingclave for UAE businesses
- Industry
Driver apps and background location
- Industry
Why stores reject bought app scripts
- Industry
Card holds and partial capture
- Industry
Dispatch for booked home-service jobs
- Price guide
Costing dispatch and booking portals
- Service
WhatsApp booking assistants
- Service
App maintenance after launch
- Guide
PayTabs vs Telr vs MyFatoorah
- Service
Arabic right-to-left screen design
Ashish Sharma
Founder, Codingclave · Updated 12 October 2026
Ashish founded Codingclave in Lucknow, India, in 2017 and still leads delivery on every project.
Sources (12)· public sources cited on this page
- Dubai Legislation Portal – Executive Council Resolution No. (20) of 2021 amending Resolution No. (6) of 2016
- Dubai Media Office – Hamdan bin Mohammed issues resolution regulating passenger transport by cars in Dubai (3 Aug 2021)
- RTA – Taxi booking services migrate to the Hala e-hailing platform (11 Nov 2019)
- Gulf News – RTA announces new Dubai taxi fares
- Khaleej Times – Dubai Taxi Company, Kabi join forces to enhance ride-hailing experience (24 Sep 2025)
- Gulf News – Dubai Taxi Company adds 1,607 taxis to Bolt platform (19 Aug 2026)
- Apple – App Store Review Guidelines
- Appinventiv – Cost to build a taxi booking app like Hala Taxi (27 Aug 2026)
- Tenet – Taxi app development cost in Dubai (28 Jun 2025)
- Fluper – Taxi app development services
- Code Brew – Taxi app development company
- Techanic Infotech – Taxi booking app development company in Dubai