New loader vehicles make their place in city

People believe issue remains not with authenticity of vehicle, rather its drivers

KARACHI:

The port city’s streets have seen a significant increase in loader vehicles, including modified motorcycles, rickshaws and Ching-Chis, darting through highways and narrow alleys in the last few years. Primarily used for small-scale deliveries across Karachi’s teeming business centres, the penetration of these wobbly, overloaded vehicles in mainstream traffic has been seen as a nuisance by the city’s commuters.

It is widely believed that these loading vehicles are driven by underage children and are notorious for being negligent of traffic rules, which often leads to road accidents, traffic congestion, and chaos on the already chaotic streets of the megacity. While the city administration appears reluctant to acknowledge the issues caused by these vehicles, some citizens also sympathise with the drivers and acknowledge what these vehicles add in terms of job creation.

Ibrahim Qureshi, a garbage collector who drives a loader rickshaw to scavenge trash from across the city believes that the introduction of these vehicles has brought a lot of ease to his sector. “Before these vehicles, we’d rely on pushcarts and donkey carts or rent out small pickup trucks if one could afford. But these loader rickshaws, commonly used by garbage pickers, traders and small-business owners, have made things a lot easier. They are fast, small and affordable to use, so whoever can get one prefers using it,” said the trash collector.

Per Faisal Hassanzai, who is the leader of the local Taxi and Rickshaw Association, these loaders range from 150 to 200 CC in terms of horsepower and can cost between Rs200,000 to Rs300,000 depending on the type. “As opposed to popular notion, these are legal commercial vehicles registered with the Excise Department, and perfectly capable of transporting goods weighing 500 to 1,000 kilogrammes,” he told, adding that they have become a reliable source of income for thousands of people in the city.

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The problem however remains not with the authenticity of the vehicle itself, but rather its drivers. According to Junaid Ali, who uses a loader to transport potable water cans, there has been a sudden upsurge in the number of such vehicles on Karachi’s streets. “They are recklessly driven by kids or unskilled drivers. Anyone who knows how to drive a motorcycle can start driving a loader. It’s often that these drivers pay no heed to their vehicle’s weight limit or the speed limit on the highway, which leads to accidents,” he opined.

While these vehicles may certainly have helped in creating new jobs, pickup truck drivers, whose vehicles used to be the standard option for goods transportation, believe that loaders have now taken their jobs. “The loaders charge 25 to 30 per cent less than pickup trucks, so a lot of small-scale business owners prefer hiring them now. This has led to a significant decrease in our work, pushing many pickup drivers to use their savings to get a loader instead,” lamented Babar Arif, a local pickup driver.

Addressing the traffic concerns created by these loading vehicles, however, a spokesperson of the Karachi traffic police categorically denied all claims regarding constables turning a blind eye to transgressions by loader drivers. “The traffic rules are the same for all commercial vehicles in Karachi. Loaders or any commercial vehicle that violates the law is subject to fines or other legal action,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2022.