Policy framework for meter taxis vital

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Metered three-wheelers

When you stand opposite Regal cinema hall or opposite Lake House in Colombo expecting a three-wheeler to reach your desired destination whether to Pettah, Town Hall, Kollupitiya, Borella or Bambalapitiya you may come across quite a number of three-wheelers to attend to your services. But these days you may prefer to travel in a metered taxi rather than getting into a non-metered taxi.

Unlike in the past, the city of Colombo is now filled with metered taxis and they are now invading even the three-wheel parks in the city though meter taxi concept emerged to get three- wheelers on the streets rather than sticking them in three-wheel parks to be on the street expecting hires.

May be you prefer metered three-wheelers to non-metered three- wheelers as you always prefer not to be drawn into an argument or bargaining with the taxi drivers at the end of your journey over the taxi fare as many three-wheel drivers used to ask for more at the end of the journey. Therefore, many people mostly welcomed the entry of metered taxis to the streets voluntarily by the three- wheel operators themselves.

Though meter taxis are not a novel thing to Sri Lanka, the history of the metered three-wheelers does not go beyond 2005 despite the fact that three-wheelers were introduced to Sri Lanka in 1978. According to the President of the All Island Three-wheel Drivers Union, Lalith Dharmasekara, the first digital fare meter to the country was introduced to Sri Lanka in 2005 by Thejasiri Gunatilleke a businessman based in Kandy.

It was exactly on January 15, 2005 the first metered three- wheeler entered to the streets in Colombo after Kelum Jayasumana, from Galpotta Road, Kotahena fixed the first fare meter in his three-wheeler.

Upali de Silva	Lal Kalinga	Thushara Kariyakarawana	Lalith Dharmasekara

After a few years Upali de Silva from the Lisvin Trading Company imported some 20 fare meters to Sri Lanka and they were distributed among three-wheel operators in Colombo National Hospital area, Navam Mawatha, Wellawatta and Bambalapitiya.

"It was with the firm belief that the Government would make it compulsory to have fare meters for three-wheelers, that the businessmen imported those fare meters. But it never became a reality and even the businessmen were discouraged and stopped importing the fare meters", Dharmasekara said.

Later, another attempt was made by Dr. Kumar Rupasinghe along with Kelum Jayasumana, the first three wheel operator who fixed a fare meter to a three-wheeler, by importing 100 fare meters from India and distribute them among the three-wheel operators.

Thereafter, three wheel operators banded themselves to popularise fare meters among three-wheel operators amidst heavy opposition from the normal three-wheel operators who preferred to run their services without adopting any justifiable fare mechanism.

When the locally produced fare meter was introduced by Link Lanka pioneered by Thushara Kariyakarawana, three years back the fare meters started to become more popular among three wheel operators.

"At the beginning the fare meters were fixed to charge Rs.50 for the first kilometre and Rs.28 from the second kilometre.

We used to encourage three wheel operators to fix fare meters for their three-wheelers as we needed to run this service in a fair and justifiable manner," Dharmasekara added.

But things were complicated with the fluctuating fuel prices in the country. When the price of one litre of petrol hit Rs.157 the fare meters were readjusted to charge Rs. 32 per kilometre retaining the charge for the first kilometre Rs.50 as it is.

The fluctuating fuel prices have made it impossible for the three wheel operators to maintain a standard fare as the charge for one kilometre. "Things went out of our control also as three-wheel operators demanded that the fare for one kilometre should be adjusted according to the fuel price hike", Dharmasekara added.

Things started to change from then as fare meter fixing companies had to comply with the demand of the three-wheeler operators as they lost their businesses. Once they refused the demands of the three-wheel operators to fix the rates according to the wish of the operator, the number of fare meter importers also increased gradually.

This situation has led to so many discrepancies in the fare metered three wheel operators as they used to change the fare meters according to their wish. Today, the situation has worsened as they opted for many tactics to mislead the commuters boarding their three-wheelers.

Therefore, the people who get into the three-wheelers had to first inquire how much they charge per kilometre after the first kilometre. At a time when people have to think twice even to spend Rs.20 due to soaring cost of living, people are naturally keen to know how much they are spending for their daily travel.

As fare meters are adjusted according to the wishes of the three wheel operator, people who used to travel on metered three-wheelers also had to pay different amounts for the same journey on the same route they travel on a daily basis; thus, meter taxis are becoming a nuisance.

This has not only become a nuisance for the people who travel in three-wheelers but also for the metered three-wheel operators running their service charging a fair amount.

"This situation has posed a danger for the metered three-wheelers itself as people look at these metered taxis suspiciously when three wheel drivers are charging different fares. Now there are taxis which charge Rs.40 per kilometre," Lalith Dharmasekara added.

Under these circumstances people had to be extra careful when they get into metered three-wheelers without checking how much they charge for one kilometre.

But this has also become a difficult task for the people as three-wheel drivers used to switch on the meter before the commuter gets into the three-wheeler to mislead the passenger as the meter indicates only 0000 on the meter at the beginning. Only after the end of the first kilometre that people realise the exact amount they charge after the first kilometre.

"People should ask the driver about the charge per kilometre before they get into the three-wheeler though it indicates that it is a metered taxi", Dharmasekara added.

Apart from this, three-wheel drivers also opted to change the time of the meter to fix it to the night mode enabling them to charge 15 percent higher compared to the day time charge. But this happens only in the three-wheelers fixed with fare meters in which time can be adjusted.

But people can avoid being caught by such tactics by asking the three-wheeler drivers to show the time before they switch on the fare meter.

Dharmasekara also added, though they have not come across

meter tampering by any three wheel operator he will not rule out the possibility of them changing the calibration adjusting the fare meter to charge the fare for one kilometre for 900 metres.

But the companies fixing fare taxi meters say that they also don't have any option other than complying with the three-wheel operators since there is no law with regard to the taxi fare meters in Sri Lanka. But they totally denied any involvement in tampering the fare meters as they also want to popularise the fare meters among three wheel operators to provide a better service to the people.

Link Lanka, the leader in the fare taxi meters in Sri Lanka which started fixing locally developed fare meters among taxi operators says that they always ensure that the fare meter is fixed in a most scientific manner.

Director of Link Lanka, Thushara Kariyakarawana told the Sunday Observer that they manufacture fare meters locally after developing electronic circuit and the software locally to be fixed in the three-wheelers as well as other cab services.

"At the initial stages we fixed fare meters to charge Rs.50 for the first kilometre and Rs.30 per kilometres beyond the first kilo metre. With the increase of fuel prices three wheel operators demanded that the fare should be changed. We had to comply with their demand as they got other places to fix fare meters according to their requirement", Kariyakarawana added. "This we had to do because there was no law available in Sri Lanka to monitor this process and control the fare charged by the three wheel operators per one kilometre. But we can assure that the fare meters we fix are tamper proof ones", he added.

He said once they fix the fare meters they check the calibration after having a trial run within a kilometre. "Only once we assure that the meter is appropriately fixed only we release them", he added.

If there is any possibility to tamper the meter through radio frequencies or from other electronic devices also we have taken steps to avoid them by having sound filters in the device, he added.

"We have more than 50 dealers islandwide and once they fix the fare meters they automatically become our dealers islandwide and provide after sale services also", he added.

"The problem here is that we can assure that the meters we fix are quality ones and tamper proof. But we cannot assure that all the fare meters imported to the country are of the same quality.

That is why we also request the authorities to bring in legislations to have a price control and to check the quality of the meters imported to Sri Lanka, as very cheaper quality fare meters are also available in the market at present", Kariyakaravana added.

Upali de Silva from the Lisvin Trading which import fare meters to the country also said that they are particular about the price adjustment in the fare meters as three-wheel operators demand that their meters should be adjusted according the price they want.

"Earlier we used to fix the fare meters enabling them to charge Rs. 32 or 35 from the second kilometre onward. Now three-wheeler operators are demanding to alter it for higher fares", de Silva who is also the pioneer in introducing digital ticket machine to Sri Lanka said.

"At the beginning we fixed these fare meters in consultation with the Three-Wheel Operators Association. But later, we also had to comply with demand of our customers. In this process what we can do is only to get a letter from the three-wheel operator saying that they are going to display the fares they are going to charge from the people. They do give letters, but they can easily ignore them once they are back in the streets", he added.

"We can stick to one fare if there are any rules and regulations to monitor this process. But unfortunately there is no such law in this country to check the quality of the fare meters imported to Sri Lanka or any monitoring mechanism to fine the three-wheel operators who are charging an undue amount from the people," he added.

According to available statistics and estimates there are around 735,000 three-wheelers operating all over Sri Lanka with more than 200,000 three-wheelers added to its population along in the past two years.

According to Lalith Dharmasekara around 500,000 three-wheelers are catering to the transport needs of the people and out of that more than 40,000 are having fare meters.

"This is a huge amount and the number itself says that it needs more attention from the Government. As three-wheel operators, we feel the requirement to have monitoring and regulatory mechanism for the three-wheel passenger services in the country as some unruly three-wheel operators are trying to ruin this industry for short-term profits", he added.

From the people's side there is a necessity of having a monitoring and regulatory mechanism for the three-wheeler passenger services as they don't have a place to go once they are subjected to injustices by the three-wheelers, whether it is over fare or any other issue.

Not that there has been efforts by respective Governments to regulate the industry by bringing regulatory mechanisms but unfortunately they have not been implemented at all.

Since private passenger transportation purely comes under the Provincial Councils according to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the Western Provincial Council made certain efforts way back in 2002 passing laws to establish a Bureau for Three-wheel Services under the Road Passenger Transport Authority.

Although the legislation was gazetted on February 20, 2003 that never came into effect due to opposition from some quarters of three-wheel operators.

However, the same legislation was amended in 2008 when Reginald Cooray was the Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council and 27 regulations were gazetted on November 21, 2008 enabling the Western Provincial Council to interfere with the affairs of the service provided by the Three-wheel operators. That also had comprehensive regulations to streamline the three-wheel services.

But that also never came into effect and the implementation was further postponed due to protests by certain quarters of three-wheel operators and also by politicians.

"Today there is no one to supervise this sector and it is running without any laws to control and also without any aim though it provides a vital service to the country as a whole", Dharmasekara added.

Despite all these facts the services rendered by three-wheel operators are expanding further with the introduction of more three-wheel taxi services in more organised manner.

President of the Association of Sri Lanka Meter Taxi Services, Lal Kalinga said they are open for new changes to provide better services to the people by introducing modern technology enabling people to get access to the services even through mobile phones.

"We need to further streamline our services to the public and for this we need the help of the Government by bringing regulations to monitor whether these three-wheel operators are providing a fair service to the public. Only that way we can strengthen three-wheel service in the country", he added.

To address all these issues the Private Transport Service Ministry is now working with the Three-wheel Operators Unions and Associations to work out a policy framework for the three-wheel industry. So far several rounds of discussions have been conducted in this regard to launch this policy very soon.

Private Bus Transport Minister C.B. Ratnayaka told the Sunday Observer that his Ministry aims to formulate this policy soon though it is a subject that comes under Provincial Councils. "We are hoping to finalise this policy soon", he said.