Ridesharing Services: Bikes allowed to ply again
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has finally allowed motorcycles to resume operations under ride sharing services, on condition of following a set of health safety guidelines.
However, only 1,156 motorcycles will be able to carry passengers under the popular services for now, as the authorities decided to give permission only to the vehicles enlisted to provide the services.
Besides, the service can be provided under the area of Dhaka Transport Coordinator Authority's jurisdiction only -- within Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi and Manikganj.
People of Chattogram and some other cities, where the services were available at pre-Covid time, would not get the service.
BRTA issued a circular in this regard on Thursday and has already served it to all the service providing companies, a BRTA official told The Daily Star yesterday.
The development came two days after the government allowed buses and minibuses to carry passengers with full capacity from September 1 and reinstated previous fare.
Ride sharing service, like other public transport remained suspended from March 26, when the government announced shutdown. Although, buses and other modes of public transport hit the roads on June 1, but ride sharing services remained suspended until June 21.
Following the request of the companies, including Uber and Pathao, BRTA allowed only enlisted four-wheelers to resume operation from June 21.
But, bikes were not allowed to resume the service, considering the risks of spreading the coronavirus.
"As the government decided to normalise public transport services and already allowed buses and minibuses to operate with full capacity, we have decided to allow motorcycles [in ride sharing service] too," another official said wishing not be named.
According to a BRTA document, some 1.23 lakh cars and motorcycles operate with different ride-hailing companies. Of them, 1.04 lakh are motorcycles.
However, some 9,000 cars and 1,156 motorbikes received the enlistment certificates, a mandatory condition to operate vehicles under the service, so far, BRTA sources said.
"When BRTA made enlistment certificate must for providing the service, some 1,300 vehicles had the certificate. The number of vehicles with the certificate has increased sharply after the decision and we hope the number of enlisted motorcycle will rise soon," the officials added.
BRTA also issued guidelines to be followed to provide the service.
Both the biker and rider have to have to mask, hand gloves, face-shield and hand sanitiser. Both biker and passenger have to wear standard helmet and disinfect it after each trip. The biker would disinfect their bike before and disinfect passenger's bag if any, as well.