The New Wave In Public Transportation

By Gazala Anver

Not long after meter trishaws were introduced to the world of public transportation in Sri Lanka, Nano Cabs made their appearance. The ‘worlds cheapest car’ can now be seen zooming in and about Colombo.
The advantage: they are cheaper than your average cab and cancel out the disadvantages of taking a trishaw. Yet there is another side to the coin, namely that the livelihoods of the trishaw drivers stand to be affected.
Starting at Rs. 50 for the first kilometer, like every meter trishaw, Nano Cabs charge Rs. 45 per kilometer for the first 10 kilometers, and afterwards drops to Rs. 35 per kilometer. While this is a little costlier than a meter trishaw, it makes up for it with A/C comfort. What’s better is the fact that you don’t have to direct them to where you live, no matter how internal the location. Inside the car is a GPS system. So even if you happen to live in the very bowels of Dehiwala or Nawala, you don’t have to go through the hassle of directing the driver.
They are however not equipped for 24 hour service as yet, and so the problem still stands for late night outs, especially since other cabs are quite exorbitant. Random trishaws from the street are hardly safe at a later hour, and meter trishaws are rare at the time. Another problem is: there are very few of these cabs. Just a fleet of 40 in fact. Initially the hotline was almost always busy, and sometimes you might not even get a cab.

Negative response?

But while there seems to be a high demand for these cars, what of their predecessors, the trishaws, upon which people’s livelihoods depend?
A protest was held on 22 June led by the Federation of Self Employees (FoSE)against these cabs. While the protest was not aimed at stopping these cabs per se, the finance secretary to FoSE, M.F.M Razick informed that the problem had to do with the fact that attempts were made to park some of these cabs in three wheeler parks in Maradana, Borella and Bastian Mawatha in Pettah. According to Razick, threewheel parks are established after a lot of hard work and trouble, visits to police stations included, and not even trishaw drivers from other places are allowed to park in these stands.
In addition, Razick added that overall they have no objection against the Nano cab. The issue with joining their ranks is that they would prefer to own the vehicle, as is the case with the three wheeler, rather than work on a salary for a private company.
There have also been rumours about how the Nano cabs would replace the three wheelers, he explained, leaving the three wheel drivers in a conundrum. He added that since this is a recent development, it has not affected the number of hires for the three wheel drivers yet.
According to Director for EAP Group of Companies, which was the first to introduce the Budget Taxi in Sri Lanka, Nalaka Edirisinghe, the Nano cabs will not pose a threat in the immediate future. He said that if the consumer prefers the Nano Cab over the trishaw, and more are brought into the market, this could all change. For the time being however, considering the demand, and the fact that there are 400,000 trishaws island wide and just a handful of cabs, the three wheelers will be pretty much in demand.
“As for completely banning trishaws, they can’t do it overnight and expect the drivers to look at god and feed their families,” he said, adding that if there was indeed a plan to remove trishaws from Colombo, it would be highly unethical if it was done without a few years notice.
“It will be good if it generates employment,” he said, “but for now, only the drivers are employed,” he said.
According to Edirisinghe however the demand for Nano cabs is big. Five out of ten calls his company receives are for nano cabs, he said, adding that his company has 11 Nano cabs. “People like comfort and an improvement of lifestyles,” he said.
A director of Nano Cabs, who wished to be unnamed, said that it cost them Rs. 1.1 million per car: a far cry from the claims that this is the ‘world’s cheapest car.’ It is certainly not the case in Sri Lanka with the taxes on imported vehicles. In fact, due to a tax rise in May this year, said the director, the prices rose from Rs 900,000 to Rs 1.1 million. “We had to pay an extra Rs 200,000,” she explained.
She however denied allegations that there is an attempt to take over the mantle of the trishaw drivers. “This is what they say, we have only 40 cabs, so how can we be a threat to the three wheelers?” She also denied that there were attempts to park the cars in three wheeler parks. “We don’t have time to stand the cabs in one place. The cabs are always running,” she said.
According to her, the demand right now is big. “We have 10 operators working for 10 hours,” she said. “We are in fact thinking of expanding in the near future.”

On the road

Echoing both Razick’s and Edirisinghe’s words are the trishaw drivers. Many admitted to the fact that they have not felt the effect of these cabs as yet, but are afraid that the trishaws will be banned entirely.
Pradeep, a meter trishaw driver said that he feels it will affect them adversely in the future. “We need a solution for this,” he said. “If they give us our own car, we will be fine with it, but I don’t want to be a mere driver,” he said.
Nishantha, based in Narahenpita said that development was always a good sign, and in this case they welcome it. “But they need to think about us also,” he said.
Kolitha, at a trishaw stand in Bambalapitiya, too was of the same opinion. He said that the cabs would appeal to those of the higher class, but his usual hires haven’t seen a fall. “I don’t know how it will be in the future though,” he said. “People like to go with the times, and so do we, it is a good and a bad thing. A bad thing for us, but good for the country. But if it is done in a way that will affect our business, we will make an issue of it.”