Resuming Service Amid Pandemic: Uber seeks intervention from PMO
Uber Bangladesh Ltd has sought intervention from the Prime Minister's Office to be able to resume operations in Dhaka and other cities amid the government decision to suspend ride-hailing services until further notice.
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Ahmad Kaikaus is scheduled to hold an online meeting with a delegation of Uber on June 20 in this regard, officials said.
Road Transport and Highway Division (RTHD) Secretary Nazrul Islam and acting chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) are also expected to take part in the meeting.
BRTA acting chairman Yousub Ali Mollah said, "We have received a notice about the meeting… We think they [Uber] may raise the issue of resumption of their service at the meeting."
However, at least two officials who were aware of the development said matters related to Uber's ride-hailing service would be the main agenda of the meeting.
The Daily Star could not reach Uber for comment. This correspondent sent an e-mail to Uber via its PR firm on Tuesday seeking comments over the issue but it has not responded as of 5:00pm yesterday.
The move comes after BRTA took a hard line on vehicles that had been providing the popular service without being enlisted with the road transport authority. Enlistment with the BRTA is a must for both the company and the vehicles to operate the service.
According to BRTA officials, although there are some 1.23 lakh vehicles registered with 12 ride-hailing companies, only 1,300 of them are enlisted with the BRTA.
Although bus and other public transport hit the streets on June 1, operations of ride-hailing services remained suspended until notice citing health safety issues.
Two major ride-hailing companies -- Uber and Pathao -- recently wrote to the BRTA, requesting it to allow them to resume operations like other public transport.
The BRTA, in a reply on June 4, asked them to inform it the number of owners and riders of enlisted vehicles (with vehicle registration number and driving licence number) who were interested to resume operation given the current situation and how they would ensure health safety guidelines, especially for motorcycle users.
BRTA officials said the letter bears a hint that they would not allow any unlisted vehicles from now.
BRTA SENDS LETTER AGAIN
Sources at BRTA said following their letter, Uber and Pathao sent a reply, where they mainly highlighted several technical limitations in the BRTA enlistment portal and process and they also sought more time to ensure enlistment of all drivers.
On June 10, BRTA sent another letter to those companies, refuting the allegations and said BRTA has solved all problems case to case basis. Ii also said although those companies in their letter, told about safety measures taken for motor cars but did not say anything how they main safety in motorcycle services.
Mentioning that as per the Ride-Sharing Service Guideline-2017, there is no scope to allow any unlisted vehicles under ride-hailing services, BRTA once again asked them to inform it the number of owners and riders of enlisted vehicles who were interested to resume operation now.
But the companies did not get the list till Tuesday, BRTA acting chairman said.
According to the BRTA June 4 letter, only 126 vehicles (15 cars and 111 motorcycles) under Uber have the enlistment certificate while 118 (two cars and 116 motorcycles) under Pathao have it.
But according to the latest BRTA documents, a total of 20,637 vehicles operate under Uber and 20,000 under Pathao.
As per the Ride-Sharing Service Guideline-2017, each vehicle has to be enlisted with the BRTA after paying a certain amount of money.
When the BRTA started enlisting ride-hailing companies in July last year, it made the enlistment of at least 100 vehicles mandatory for the companies to have the certificates. Later BRTA on several occasions asked those companies to enlist their vehicles, but they did not comply, officials said.
Contacted, Sayeda Nabila Mahabub, director (marketing and public relations) at Pathao acknowledged receiving the latest letter.
She said BRTA reiterated their requests from their earlier letter dated June 4 to which they provided a prompt and comprehensive response on June 6.
"BRTA observed that there are no issues with the enlistment portal. As we had submitted letters to BRTA on multiple occasions and had a meeting with them at BRTA headquarters to raise these continuing problems with server load, one-time-passwords, payment options that remain unresolved. We had reiterated these issues in our letter to BRTA dated June 6," she said.
She said Pathao, in collaboration with other ride-hailing companies with guidance from the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh, has developed a detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for car and motorbike-hailing.
They have already submitted the SOPs to BRTA, she added.
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