200k loader rickshaw owners face scrutiny

Traffic wardens stop drivers due to non-registration

LAHORE:

More than 200,000 loader motorcycle owners across Punjab are facing difficulties because the manufacturers of these vehicles have not obtained certification from the relevant authorities.

As a result of lack of certification from the transport department, Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority and the Engineering Development Board, the vehicles are not registered by the Motor Registration Authority of the excise and taxation department.

Traffic wardens and the police stop the drivers every day due to non-registration. As a result, millions of people who earn their livelihood from the loader motorcycles are facing uncertainty.

As the excise and taxation department has refused to register the more than 200,000 loader motorcycle rickshaws, traffic wardens, police and other departments’ officials often impose penalties on them, making it difficult for the owners to ply them on the roads.

A loader motorcycle owner, Naveed, said while talking to The Express Tribune, “What is our fault if the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority and Engineering Development Board have not certified the manufacturer? We buy the vehicles for Rs150,000 to Rs375,000 but the excise and taxation department does not register them.”

He said that if the owners brought a vehicle on a road without a registration number plate, the police and traffic wardens stopped them. In many instances, the drivers pay the officials to spare them.

He wondered why the companies were being allowed to produce the vehicles if they were not up to the standard.

"Hundreds of thousands of such vehicles have been sold across Punjab, including Lahore. Why don't the government agencies take action against these companies? It has become difficult for us to earn a living," he lamented.

There are more than 50,000 cargo rickshaws in Lahore and none of them is registered. Their drivers also often flout the traffic rules because the vehicles are already plying on the roads illegally. The violation of rules, especially traffic lights, often results in accidents causing injuries and deaths.

When contacted, Excise and Taxation Director Qamarul Hassan Sajjad said, "When the transport department will certify the loader motorcycles of the companies, we will immediately register them. However, it is not the job of the excise and taxation to take action against them."

Plying in fleets across most major and minor thoroughfares of the city, the three-wheelers are fast becoming a threat to Lahore’s road safety.

Often notorious for traffic collisions, these flimsy carts are a common sight on highways, where they are used to transport goods from market to market.

These three-wheeled vehicles, which lack stability, are made to tow behind a motorcycle and considered unsafe for highway use in most circumstances. However, given the local administration’s callousness, loader rickshaws have been left unchecked to run on the city’s streets.

According to a survey conducted by The Express Tribune, there were thousands of loader rickshaws without licence plates and registration copies, which regularly tool along city’s highways. Drivers of these motor vehicles are known to further flout traffic rules by driving without a helmet, while having no safety mechanisms in place for passengers.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a loader rickshaw driver said that it costs anywhere between Rs50,000 to Rs60,000 to produce the hybrid vehicle. “It may not be the safest mode of transport, but this is all I can afford to feed my family of six,” he said.

A concerned citizen shared that these three-wheeled goods-transporting vehicles were often heavily loaded and driven by criminally young drivers, which makes them extremely dangerous.

“Motorcycles and other vehicles are often issued challans by the police but these deadly vehicles are left to run unchecked on our thoroughfares. The government should take note of this and work towards creating safer roads.”

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2020.