DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Dubai-based rideshare app Careem is providing inter-country taxi journeys for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as hundreds of thousands of soccer followers from all over the world descend on the tiny Gulf nation for the Center East’s first-ever go at internet hosting the large match. 

The provide would not span the entire international locations round Qatar however will likely be accessible to these touring from two elements of neighboring Saudi Arabia: town of Dammam, which is 250 miles (402 kilometers) away from the capital Doha and takes roughly 4.5 hours to get there, and Al Ahsa Metropolis, roughly 160 miles away from Doha with a journey time of three hours.

The fare? A set $266 every method (1000 Saudi riyals), or $532 for the round-trip, with a most of three passengers per taxi.

However will folks go for a multi-hour highway journey moderately than simply taking a fast flight? Bassel Al Nahlaoui, Careem’s managing director for mobility, thinks so. 

“This journey is admittedly handy. It is round 3.5 hours and should you evaluate that to a flight, it matches the time it takes you to go to the airport and take the flight, land there, and so forth — besides you are in a automobile, you are paying a fraction of the worth, and should you break up that with a few buddies it turns into even cheaper,” Al Nahlaoui advised CNBC.

Nonetheless, vacationers can solely e book the experience to Doha sooner or later upfront, which may make planning forward troublesome. 

And crossing the Saudi-Qatar border requires taking a shuttle bus, going by means of border management and assembly a brand new driver on the opposite facet. However Careem says this a part of the journey has additionally been totally accounted for.

“What occurs is you open your app, you e book a automobile from considered one of these two cities, a captain [driver] picks you up and drives you to the border,” Al Nahlaoui stated. “On the border, we’ve got Careem employees that can assist you to cross the border, discover the captain that is ready for you on the Qatari facet, after which that is the final leg of the journey.” 

“And our buyer care is monitoring the journey all through the journey itself,” he added, noting that Careem’s buyer help employees numbers have been boosted.  

To this finish, contingencies have additionally been put in place if riders or drivers face issues or unruly conduct, Al Nahlaoui stated. 

“Our care workforce helps all verticals … we’re capable of improve and reduce our help quantity almost by day, that is how versatile we’re and the way rapidly we’re capable of regulate to help incoming calls,” he stated. “When it comes to disaster, we’ve got a particular help line you’ll be able to entry by means of the app itself.”

In case the drivers themselves face hassle from passengers, “our captains have the identical entry to care that our prospects have,” Al Nahlaoui stated. “We have now a number of channels for them to get fast entry or several types of help relying on the scenario, in order that has all the time been in place for captain help.”

The rideshare app, which has grown right into a “super-app” over the previous few years to supply quite a few companies along with rides and was acquired by Uber in 2019, expects buyer demand to balloon in the course of the World Cup, which runs from Nov. 20 to Dec. 18. 

However throughout massive occasions within the area’s cities like worldwide conferences or the Dubai Expo 2020, Careem vehicles have been typically troublesome to search out, and wait occasions multiplied, leaving many shoppers annoyed.

Al Nahlaoui says he hopes this would possibly not be the case this time, and that the corporate has amply ready for the large inflow of individuals. 

Careem, which operates in 80 cities, has “steadily expanded its fleet dimension by 1,000 extra vehicles over a number of months,” to organize for the World Cup, the corporate stated in a press release earlier this month.

The corporate expects the entire variety of Careem automobiles in Qatar — which span taxis, vans, luxurious vehicles and motorbikes — to develop by greater than 50% in time for the match.

Careem’s fleets in close by cities like Dubai, the business capital of the United Arab Emirates, have been rising in tandem, Al Nahlaoui stated. 

The area’s high metropolis for leisure tourism is predicted to see an enormous surge in guests alongside Doha, as many decide to remain in Dubai however fly to Qatar for particular person matches.

That is due no less than partly to the wrestle that Qatar, with a inhabitants of about 3 million, has confronted in build up resort capability for its 1.2 million anticipated guests in the course of the match interval. Qatar Airways is even providing “match day shuttles” that can enable spectators to fly into and overseas inside 24 hours for particular person video games.

To that finish, Careem says it’ll have devoted pickup lanes at Qatar’s Doha Worldwide Airport and Hamad Worldwide Airport offering direct rides to all eight World Cup stadiums. 

And to organize for the big quantity of vacationers coming into Qatar and the broader area from elsewhere in Asia, Careem has partnered with different international locations’ well-liked rideshare and funds apps — Seize, Alipay, and Kakao — primarily based in Singapore, China and South Korea, respectively — for direct app integration in order that customers can e book Careem taxis on the apps they already use. Seize is the most-used rideshare app in Southeast Asia.