Uncertainty clouds ridesharing rules as BRTA enlists 12 firms

After a wait of one and a half years, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has granted temporary enlistment certificates to some ridesharing firms in spite of their failure to meet all the conditions for a fully-fledged licence in that period.

But none of the stakeholders were able to shed light on a timeline for fulfilling these conditions.

The government issued a set of guidelines to regulate the industry in January 2018, which provided the rules for acquiring licenses and fixing fares, among other things. Yet no-one is monitoring whether these rules are being followed and implemented properly.

The firms have faulted lack of readiness on the part of some government agencies for the failure to meet the conditions while the BRTA and police say the necessary infrastructure outlined in the guidelines are yet to be put in place.

Considering these issues, the BRTA decided to enlist the firms earlier this year by easing some conditions. And since the start of the process in July, 12 companies have so far been registered.

These are Pickme, Computer Network Systems, OBHAI Solutions, Chaldal, Pathao, Easier Technologies, Akash Technology, Segesta, Shohoz, Uber Bangladesh, Buddy and Akij Online Bangladesh.

Of these, Uber, Pathao, Shohoz, OBHAI and Pickme are providing passenger services.

However, they are yet to meet some of the conditions set out in the guidelines.

According to the guidelines, ridesharing firms must add an SOS button to their apps and establish an appropriate system that will allow police to monitor every trip from a control room.

The guidelines also stipulate that all information of the ridesharing service must be processed and stored within Bangladesh and cannot be transmitted in any way outside the country. But none of the firms have been able to fulfil this condition.

The ridesharing companies applied for the enlistment certificate with the promise of fulfilling the conditions immediately. However, they could not ascertain a specific timeframe for meeting the conditions.

Asked when the conditions of the policy would be implemented, Uber said it was working with policymakers to implement the benefits of ridesharing.

“We’re working on SOS integration. It will be implemented soon. Uber has already added 999 national helpline to its SOS button on the app."

"We want to emphasise that Uber follows very high quality information security practices and tries to ensure that the information is kept in the highest privacy. Secondly, since apps like Uber are used by citizens of other countries and Bangladeshis in the same way, only information protection and transmission in Bangladesh will adversely affect the quality of our services and it will also affect the privacy of citizens of other countries.”

OBHAI assistant manager (regulatory affairs) Syed Fakhruddin Millat was quoted by bdnews24.com as saying that they already laid down the technical aspects.

“We are prepared to meet other issues, including SOS. We will be able to provide the service as soon as the police can provide us with the infrastructure. And we have promised the BRTA that the information will not be trafficked.”

However, many machinery and technology have not yet been brought in to accommodate the three issues, said police’s Additional DIG Mohammad Tobarrak Ullah.

“I can’t say exactly when that will happen,” he said.

BRTA director Lokman Hossain Mollah said the ridesharing companies were not given a deadline because of certain limitations of the regulator.

No control over fare

The ridesharing guidelines require companies to charge fares in line with the Taxicab Policy 2010. However, the policy is silent about auto-rickshaw and motorcycle fares.

The fare for economy taxicabs was fixed at Tk 50 for the first 2.0 kilometres and Tk 12 for every additional kilometre travelled. The waiting charge was set at Tk 3.0 every two minutes.

In 2014, the government brought changes to the air-conditioned taxicab fare. The fare was fixed at Tk 85 for the first 2.0 kilometres, Tk 34 from the third kilometre onwards while the waiting charge was set at Tk 8.5 every two minutes.

A year later, the government fixed the auto-rickshaw fare at Tk 40 for the first two kilometres, Tk 12 from the third kilometre onwards with a waiting charge of Tk 2.0 for every two minutes.

Director Lokman was also quoted by the news agency as saying that it is difficult to monitor how the ridesharing firms are charging the passengers as the BRTA is understaffed.

“We can’t follow others either as ridesharing is an informal sector in other countries."

“However, we’ve brought some control by making the guidelines. But they are not controlled anywhere in the world.”