The post Auto-rickshaws, taxicabs drivers take excessive fares appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Drivers argue that due to a rise in daily deposits and an unwillingness of police and owners, they have to charge extra fares from commuters.
Mohammad Anisul Haque, a traveller who reached Kamlapur railway station in Dhaka from Naokhali on Friday, said that he had to pay Tk 200 for an auto-rickshaw to go to Babubazar.
‘The fare is normally Tk 100, but today drivers are even asking for over Tk 250,’ he added.
Another passenger at Kamlapur railway station, Shariful Haque, said the auto-rickshaw drivers asked for Tk 200 to go to Indira Road, when the fare was normally Tk 100 to Tk 120.
This correspondent found that there were about 40 auto-rickshaws in front of the railway station which had no working metres.
Saiful Alam, a Dhanmondi resident, took a taxicab from Shahjanapur to reach Zigatola and paid Tk 250 when the fare was normally Tk 150 to Tk 200.
Dhaka Metropolitan CNG, Auto-Rickshaw and Mishuk Drivers Union general secretary Shakhawat Hossian Dulal told New Age that there should be a tri-party monitoring cell by the representatives of the government, CNG auto-rickshaws’ owners and drivers.
‘If there is such a cell, the owners would collect the government fixed daily deposit from the drivers,’ he said.
He also said that the private auto-rickshaws’ owners were painting their vehicles to earn extra money which have no metres.
‘It is true that drivers are collecting excessive fares from commuters as they are helpless’.
Dhaka Metropolitan Taxicab Drivers Union general secretary, SM Tarek Mahmud also admitted that taxicab drivers were collecting extra fares from commuters.
The owners were taking Tk 1,500 from the taxicab drivers per day which compelled them to collect extra fares, he added.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Auto Rickshaw Business Owners Association general secretary, Mohammad Faridul Islam Khasru, denied the complaint.
‘We are just collecting the deposit,’ he said, adding ‘If someone says so, please ask him to lodge a complaint against us.’
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Meter means nothing appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
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Hop on an auto-rickshaw, tell the driver where you want to go in the capital, go there and pay him what the meter says. This was probably the original idea behind installing meters in every CNG-run auto rickshaw in the capital. The authorities had presented city dwellers with a rosy picture indeed.A few years down the line the picture is very different. Now, city dwellers go out to work every morning and virtually beg auto rickshaw drivers to take them to their destinations.
Paying them as per the meter is a thing of the past. Now, one must haggle before getting into an auto rickshaw and one may consider oneself lucky even if the fare charged is just double that of the meter.
A ride to Kakrail from the city’s Farmgate should cost no more than Tk 60 on a CNG-run auto rickshaw considering even the heavy traffic, when waiting charges apply.
Fakhrul Islam recently had to pay Tk 130 when he along with his family went to visit his relatives in Kakrail.
Selin Cruze had even worse experience.
The embroidery artisan, who came to Dhaka from Natore to supply goods to a chain store, had to pay Tk 300 to go to Indira Road from near Gabtoli.
“I tried a number of CNGs [auto rickshaws are usually called CNGs] for about half an hour, but they declined to take us. The one that agreed to take us asked for so much that it was almost equal to the bus fare from Natore to Dhaka,” she told The Daily Star.
One can find thousands of people telling stories of a similar nature or even worse in the capital.
However, drivers say they cannot afford to follow the meter and charge more from the passengers because the owners of their vehicles charge them Tk 800 to Tk 1,150 a day. The government-fixed charge is Tk 600 a day.
Vehicle owners, however, claim that as prices of lubricants, spares and other materials required to smoothly run three-wheelers go high, charging drivers Tk 600 a day is not feasible. It is difficult for both drivers and owners of three-wheelers to go by the rates fixed in the meters by the government.
The rates of the meters were fixed in January last year.
To know about the reality on the ground, The Daily Star correspondent spoke to 10 drivers in the first week of July. Eight of them said the owners charged Tk 800 a day from them. The remaining two said the owners charged Tk 1,150 from two drivers driving the vehicle on two shifts a day.
“My vehicle owner, who started his business with only two auto rickshaws ten years ago, is now a multi-millionaire,” claimed a driver without giving his name. “They make huge profits, and its burden is passed on the passengers,” he said, adding that rise in the cost of operation was not an issue.
Nazmul Hasan, General Secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Auto-Rickshaw Owners’ Association, however, said the owners charged Tk 700, not Tk 600.
When pointed out that it was still Tk 100 more than the fixed rate, he told The Daily Star, “It is because prices of all essentials and even spares have gone up.”
There are some 13,000 three-wheelers in the capital now but in 2003 there were more than 25,000 two-stroke baby taxies here (auto rickshaws which have been taken off the streets), he said, citing the shortage of auto rickshaws a reason for drivers taking advantage of the situation and charging high and being reluctant to take passengers where they want to go.
Ayubur Rahman, chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), said BRTA regularly uses its mobile courts to check these kinds of irregularities on the streets of the capital. He claimed that passengers often lie to the court about whether they were going to pay according to the meter.
“Please write in your paper and ask passengers to speak the truth so that we can take action against drivers who are not following the rules,” he pleaded.
Zyma Islam, a university student, said she was without a ride very early in the morning after she had told police that the driver was not charging her by the meter.
“I had a lot of luggage with me as I had reached Dhaka from Chittagong that morning. On my way to Dhanmondi from the bus stop in Malibagh around 7:00am, police stopped the three-wheeler and asked if the driver was charging me by the meter. As I said no, police fined the driver which caused delays. There was an altercation between the policemen and the driver. I eventually had to find other means to get to Dhanmondi,” she said.
Asked about owners’ charging drivers more than the fixed Tk 600 a day, Ayubur said it was true.
On drivers’ and owners’ demand for re-fixing the meters with new rates, he said the government has been considering everything.
As per the fare structure, effective since January 16 last year, city dwellers are to pay Tk 25 for the first two kilometres (km). The charge for each subsequent km is Tk 7 and the waiting charge per minute is Tk 1.25.
Meanwhile, Sharifuzzaman Sharif, general secretary of Citizens’ Solidarity, said increasing the number of public transport, reducing cars and strong enforcement of traffic rules were necessary to discipline the transport system in the capital.
Image (above) caption: Thirteen auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers are made to stand on one leg holding their ears at the plinth of the Santrash Birodhi Raju sculpture on Dhaka University campus yesterday. Fed up with drivers not willing to go wherever the passengers want and their refusal to use the meter, a few university students gave them the punishment. Photo courtesy: Palash Khan
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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]]>The post Drivers ignore meter compliance appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Auto-rickshaw drivers charged fares in excess, often several times more that the newly fixed rates, complained commuters.
They said that there were none to turn to against such rampant non compliance of meters and fares.
Neither the police nor the mobile courts were there to penalise the drivers who flouted the rules at sweet will, said helpless commuters.
They said that they had to pay much more to commute than they were prepared to spend on the very first day of the much publicised new arrangement the authorities put in lace in November.
The government fixed the new fares in November following a tripartite agreement it had with the drivers and the owners. The arrangement requires strict meter compliance by the auto-rickshaw drivers.
But the tripartite agreement on fare and meter compliance was on tatters on the very first day.
Commuters in the capital city complained that auto-rickshaw drivers generally ignored their requests to go by meters.
The drivers continued to charge exorbitant fares and many of them refused to take them to their destinations of choice though it’s a gross violation of the rules for the drivers to refuse to carry passengers. The terms of their driving licence as well as of the road permit of rental transports prohibit it.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the associations of drivers and owners of the CNG-run auto-rickshaw admitted that ‘some of the drivers’ charged excess fares refusing to go by meters.
The failure of the police as well as the BRTA to enforce meter and fare compliance, said commuters, left them at the mercy of the drivers.
On the first day, the authorities could institute only on mobile court, instead of the six they said they would to enforce compliance and penalise violations by imposing fines.
Baffled commuters said that they found no cop or mobile courts anywhere to record their complaints. There was none to take the actions against the violators either, they said.
The drivers’ association, however, said that many auto-rickshaw owners continued to realise daily rent in excess of Tk 600, fixed by the authorities in accordance with the tripartite agreement.
The government made it mandatory for CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers to go by meters from January 16 and to charge Tk 25 for first two kilometers, up from the previous rate of Tk 14, and Tk seven 7 for each subsequent kilometer, up from Tk 6.
Responding to the owners’ demand, the government had increased the daily rent an auto-rickshaw driver has to pay the owner, to Tk 600, from Tk 450.
The government fixed the minimum fare at Tk 25, up from Tk 18.
It would be fourth auto-rickshaw fare hike since 2002, when the fare for the first two kilometres was set at Tk 12 and Tk five for each subsequent kilometre.
Sabuj, a young commuter, said that at least two auto-rickshaw drivers refused to take him to Motijheel.
A third one, he said, refused to go by the meter and instead demanded Tk150 for the trip.
BRTA chairman Ayubur Rahman Khan told New Age, ‘We received complaints like this.’
He said, ‘we will sit with the owners and drivers on Monday to discuss the issue.’
‘You see, we requested the police for a strict enforcement of meter and fare compliance. But they are not in our hands,’ he said.
Khan said all the mobile courts needed could not be instituted as magistrates were pre-occupied with preparations for Monday’s municipal polls in Dhaka division.
He said that mobile courts would be instituted from Saturday to penalise the drivers for non-compliance.
Dhaka district 4-Stroke Auto-Rickshaw CNG Drivers’ Union acting general secretary Shahidul Islam said that many owners continued to charge more than the rent fixed for auto-rickshaw at Tk 600 a day in defiance of the agreement.
He said that they give receipt for Tk 600, but realise up to Tk 800 a day in rent.
He said that they would rent out the auto-rickshaw to a different driver if one insists on paying according to the agreed rate.
But the owners’ association refuted the allegation.
Dhaka City CNG-Auto-rickshaw, Baby-taxi Owners’ Association general secretary Faridul Islam Khashru asked the drivers to lodge complaints with the associations, if the owners demand more than the new rate of rent per day.
The new fares, originally scheduled to be effective from January 1, had to be rescheduled for readjustment of meters with new fares.
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