Employment curbs for ride-hailing services

JEDDAH: Only Saudi nationals will be allowed to work for ride-hailing services operating in the Kingdom, top officials have confirmed.
As per the Ministry of Transport’s rules, non-Saudi citizens are not allowed to work with vehicle-hailing services, such as Careem, using their private vehicles, but only through licensed private and public taxi companies, Abdulla Elyas, co-founder of Careem, told Arab News.
His reaction follows local media reports which stated that expatriates will face restrictions in working in the taxi service business.
Earlier, Turki Attaimi, general supervisor of corporate communications and marketing at the Ministry of Transport, pointed out that there are special conditions to work for Uber or Careem such as graduating from training programs.
Attaimi said the Ministry of Labor as well as the security sector assumed the responsibility to organize the transportation sector in general; the ministry introduced a number of new conditions to regulate the transportation sector around four months ago and gave irregular companies a grace period to rectify their status.
Attaimi said the main goal of the ministry is to close the gap between supply and demand in this activity, especially in regard to vehicle applications.
He pointed out that many people who are involved in this activity are expatriates, some of whom are in violation of the visa and labor laws, and some of them use unlicensed cars.
Attaimi added that the new regulations are aimed to organize this sector in addition to curbing illegal activities, reported Al-Riyadh.