Rent-a-car bookings dropped more than 75 per cent ahead of this Eid-ul-Fitr festival compared to last year's due to a longer holiday and availability of tickets of all modes of transport, business-insiders said.
Shortage of tickets of inter-district buses, trains and launches for short vacation ahead of Eid every year drives a major portion of the city-dwellers to rent cars or microbuses to go home to celebrate the festival with their near and dear ones. Such rush used to help rent-a-car businesses make windfall profits.
"But the situation is different this Eid as a significant portion of service-holders left the city earlier as they managed a nine-day holiday from July 25 to August 2 this time around. Vacation of educational institutions much earlier also helped many people leave the city in advance," said Md Samiul Alam Linkon, the proprietor of Sumaiya Rent-A-Car at Lalbagh in the city.
He said for having enough time to go home, scarcity of tickets of buses, trains or launches was not visible as in the last Eid-ul Fitr.
"Orders for our vehicles dropped significantly. My two microbuses and one car have been booked for July 27 for travels to Mohanganj in Netrakona, Brahmanbaria and Bogra. Another four micros and cars are likely to remain in garage," he said.
"Last Eid-ul-Fitr we did brisk business; even we were forced to cancel many bookings," he said.
Eid-ul-Fitr commences on July 29 or 30, depending on the sighting of Shawal moon to end the lunar month of fasting-Ramadan.
Many a rent-a-car owner informed the FE that they were not getting customers even after reducing the fare by 16-20 per cent.
Md Murad Hasan, the owner of Jahan Rent-a-Car at Mirpur Section-10, told the FE that at the time of Eid-ul-Fitr they used to charge Tk 6,000 to Tk 6,500 for a trip to Comilla town by microbus. But they are now charging Tk 5000-5200 while the fare for Rangpur journey has been cut down to Tk 11,500 from Tk 13,500-14000.
"We have got few bookings on long route for July 27. Overall orders dropped more than 75 per cent this Eid-ul-Fitr," he said about the slump in business.
Mohoshin Ali Mithu, a driver of Pragati Rent-A-Car in Ring Road-Shyamoli area in the capital, told this correspondent that drivers would have to count huge income losses.
"Most rent-a-car drivers have no fixed salary-our income depends on commission from trips," he said. "We earn at least Tk700-800 per day in normal time."
Executive committee member of the City Cab and Microbus Owners Association (CMOA) Md Mubarak Hossain also echoed the views about business downturn. "Business has become dull ahead of this Eid, even compared to normal days," he said. He lamented that one or two vehicles of any rent-a-car are hired almost everyday, which became zero during this Eid vacation.
According to CMOA and Dhaka Cars and Microbus Owners Association (DCMOA) nearly 2,000 cars and microbuses are now involved with the rent-a-car business in the capital. The annual turnover of the sector was around Tk 1.2 billion in the calendar year 2013.
