Autorickshaw on meters

I asked an autorickshaw driver why no driver accepts the fare according to the meter. He told me that traffic jams make the meter reading meaningless. A problem for the drivers, he said, was the fact that instead of Tk 450 fixed by the government, the autorickshaw owners take Tk 700 per day. After this not much is left for the drivers. That is why the drivers have to charge more and the passengers usually oblige. He also told me that a driver gets the autorickshaw for half the day. It almost doubles the earning of the owners.
The traffic jams during the Ramadan slashed the earnings of the drivers drastically. He said for five days a week he himself could not get more than Taka 50 per day. Would it not be difficult for him to feed the family of four including the two children?


Sajjad Ahmed
Dhanmandi R/A, Dhaka