Easy Taxi, the global taxi hailing service operating in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan within the Middle East, has announced the implementation of meters in its cabs throughout Saudi Arabia, starting with its Jeddah fleet. In Jeddah, Easy Taxi began enforcing metering Nov. 9, while Riyadh will soon follow, according to Easy Taxi.

The move comes in support of the Saudi Ministry of Transport's plans to make meters mandatory in cabs by February 2015, thereby standardizing taxi services in Saudi Arabia.

"Metering is an excellent initiative. Not only does it improve transparency and help us gather data to improve our services, but it also standardizes service delivery while safeguarding driver welfare. In many cases, haggling to a fixed amount is inequitable either for the passenger or the driver. We strongly support the Ministry of Transport in its plans to streamline public transport in the kingdom, and have decided to meter all our cabs well in advance of the deadline in an expression of solidarity," said Dr Mahmoud Fouz, CEO of Easy Taxi Middle East.

The kingdom’s Ministry of Transport will link cab meters to a tracking system connected to the ministries of Interior and Transport. In a second phase, the metering system is expected to be rolled out for all public transport vehicles including student buses, according to Easy Taxi.

Easy Taxi currently operates in 33 countries and 165 cities worldwide.