Wheels grind slowly to recognise tuk tuks as public transport

Amendments to the National Transport Act to regulate threewheelers, school vans, and office transport services as public transport will be moved by March, the director general of the National Transport Commission (NTC) Dr. Nilan Miranda said.

A decision to create a three-wheel regulatory authority from funds allocated in the previous budget, had been delayed by more than a year.

“We are not going to establish a three-wheel regulatory authority. At the end of February, or March we are going to provide laws and guidelines under the National Transport Commission Act to the Road Passenger Transport Authority, provincial offices,” Dr. Miranda said.

To set up a separate authority for three-wheeler regulation, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa set aside Rs. 600 million in the budget. However, the authority was not established, and the pertinent law governing three-wheelers has been sitting in the Legal Draftsman’s Department for more than a year.

The Government is taking on a difficult task of regulating about 1.2 million three-wheelers providing selfemployment for over 3 million people, directly and indirectly.

This transport mode was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 1980s before the 13th amendment to the Constitution. The increase in threewheelers in the Western Province is significant. Based on the final report of the Urban Transport Master Plan in 2014, the Motor Traffic Department noted that the number of three-wheelers was 25,043 in 1999, and 96,650 in 2004.

According to a screen line survey of the study in 2013 and the traffic count survey in 2004 by the University of Moratuwa, the number of three-wheelers crossing the boundary of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) increased from 65,000 in 2004 to 129,000 a day for both directions in 2013.

The number of three-wheelers has increased by three times and regulation has become necessary.

“Three-wheelers are an intra-provincial service, so operation has to be handled provincially. There are nine statutory bodies and some provinces already maintain a sort of an official body to regulate three-wheelers, but it has to be changed. NTC is only going to create guidelines to operate three-wheelers and we are going to hand it over to all provincial road passenger transport authorities,” Dr Miranda explained.

Three-wheelers are not regulated by any ministry or authority, although inter-provincial buses are regulated and monitored by the NTC. The intra-provincial bus services are regulated by provincial road passenger authorities.

The aim of regulation is to provide users a safe, fair and efficient service and for the taxi drivers an opportunity to operate at maximum productivity and efficiency.

Three-wheeler fares are also unregulated, except that taxi drivers who belong to associations impose some self-regulation. Most taxi drivers determine their own fares. And even when a meter if fixed, nothing prevents them from deciding the fare per kilometre.

In such an environment, the All Island Three-Wheeler Association has expressed its displeasure over the long delay in regulation.

Recently, there were many allegations against three-wheel drivers charging higher fees from foreigners and this is because there is no regulation, said Lalith Dharmasekara, president, All Island Three-Wheeler Drivers’ Union.

“There is an urgent need to regularise the industry and the union has made representations to previous governments, but action was not taken. It is an unfortunate situation,” Mr. Dharmasekara said.

Although most three-wheelers which operate within the Colombo metropolitan region have fixed meters, those in the provinces operate without meters.

In this sense, three-wheelers have been identified as a less customerfriendly mode of transport. While the number of three-wheeler taxis with meters is increasing, some are still not equipped with meters and users have to negotiate fares.

“The fare decision process is also not transparent. When there is an upcoming election, the government is doing all the unnecessary stuff without targeting this. It is a failure. As the market is unregulated, the fare policy is also dependent on each association and private taxi companies,” Mr. Dharmasekara said.

As per the final report of the Urban Transport Master Plan, this sector is less regulated and is market-driven. There is no restriction on the number of three-wheelers.

The Western Province tried to regulate the sector several times. In 2002, the Western Provincial Council gazetted the three-wheeler service statute, No.6 (2002). The statute established a three-wheeler service bureau within the Western Province Road and Passenger Transport Authority, to introduce passenger transport service permits, and to set the maximum limit of the number of three-wheelers.

However, it did not come into effect due to strong opposition by some operators and drivers. Although the Western Province amended the same statute to enable the provincial government to apply the policy in 2008, this also did not come into effect because of opposition from some operators and politicians.