CNG auto-rickshaws to join app-based services

CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers want to come under an app-based transport service by January, 2018.

Dhaka and Chittagong units of CNG Auto-Rickshaw Workers’ Unity Council have decided to join the app-based service and had talks with a company, Top II, for this.

The company has already taken initiatives to develop an app named Hello Ride Sharing (Hello CNG).

Coordinator of the Top II, SM Jamal, told Prothom Alo that compressed natural gas auto-rickshaw drivers have started losing customers since ride sharing services like Uber and Pathao began operating in the cities.

He also said auto-rickshaw drivers will get adequate passengers if their vehicles can be brought under this app-based service and hoped that this will end squabbling over fares.

SM Jamal added that they have plans to launch car and motorcycle services through their app which will be in Bangla.

The company, Top II, will charge five per cent commission from the CNG auto-rickshaw drivers. It will also train the drivers, he added.

The Top II has already trained a total of 500 drivers of the CNG-run auto-rickshaw workers’ unions of Dhaka and Chittagong districts in an attempt to start its services in January 2018.

Asked about CNG auto-rickshaw owners' reaction, Jamal told Prothom Alo that the owners of the vehicles do not want to come under this process as it will prohibit them to take extra money from the drivers.

He, however, hoped that the owners will soon welcome the app.

Member secretary of Dhaka and Chittagong units of CNG Auto-Rickshaw Workers’ Unity Council, Sakhawat Hossain Dulal, said that they will not lag behind as everything is turning digital. 

However, president of the Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Owners Association, Barkatullah Bulu, told Prothom Alo that the owners, too, want to come under app-based services but it cannot be started right away.

Pointing to the drivers, he said, ''They make announcements whimsically. Do they have the vehicles?”

He also said that there are many things to be verified for this process including BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) approval.

BRTA director (operations) Shitangshu Shekhar Biswas told Prothom Alo if the CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers can come under app-based services if they follow the present BRTA policy.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla edition, has been rewritten in English by Imam Hossain.