Think before being harsh with a CNG driver
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
THE other day I was asking the driver of a CNG auto-rickshaw driver how much they would make a day if they adhered to the meter one hundred per cent. "Between Tk 100-120, sir," he said after a while. That, I thought was ridiculous.
"So you work from morning till night and if you get paid according to the meter you make this pittance?" I asked.
"Our vehicle has two drivers. One uses it from five in the morning till five in the afternoon and pays the owner Tk 600 and the other from five in the afternoon until very late at night, sometimes three to four in the morning. This man pays the owner Tk 500," he said.
So instead of Tk 450 as the government had decreed, the owner of the vehicle takes in Tk 1100. This was something new indeed. So what was the effect on the machine? The driver said those machines that used two drivers rested only for a couple of hours or so.
What about repairs? He said the owner pays for the repairs or replacement of parts but if it took half a day to make repairs the 'malik' charged him the same. Finally he told me that on top of what they paid the owner one should also add Tk 150 for the gas they took each session.
I told myself I would not be so harsh with a CNG driver next time he asked for a hiked fare. If I could afford it, fine, but if not I will hold my peace.
Pervez Sattar
Uttara,
Dhaka
"So you work from morning till night and if you get paid according to the meter you make this pittance?" I asked.
"Our vehicle has two drivers. One uses it from five in the morning till five in the afternoon and pays the owner Tk 600 and the other from five in the afternoon until very late at night, sometimes three to four in the morning. This man pays the owner Tk 500," he said.
So instead of Tk 450 as the government had decreed, the owner of the vehicle takes in Tk 1100. This was something new indeed. So what was the effect on the machine? The driver said those machines that used two drivers rested only for a couple of hours or so.
What about repairs? He said the owner pays for the repairs or replacement of parts but if it took half a day to make repairs the 'malik' charged him the same. Finally he told me that on top of what they paid the owner one should also add Tk 150 for the gas they took each session.
I told myself I would not be so harsh with a CNG driver next time he asked for a hiked fare. If I could afford it, fine, but if not I will hold my peace.
Pervez Sattar
Uttara,
Dhaka