Autorickshaw owners charge more from the drivers

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THE other day an auto-rickshaw driver told me going by the meter he would earn Tk 100 or 120 a day. That, I thought was ridiculous.
He explained further that a driver rents an autorickshaw for 12 hours from five in the morning to five in the afternoon and pays the owner Tk 600. The second driver operates it from five in the afternoon until late at night. He pays the owner Tk 500 for the second shift.
So, instead of Tk 450 per day as the government had set, the owner takes Tk 1,100. The driver said that an autorickshaw gets only a couple of hours of rest.
What about the repairs? He said, the owner pays for the repairs or replacement of parts. If the repairs take half a day, the owner charges him the full rent. The driver has to pay for the gas for each shift.
I told myself I would not be so harsh with an autorickshaw driver the next time.

Pervez Sattar
Uttara, Dhaka