A faction of autorickshaw owners and drivers say they plan to join ride hailing apps such as Uber and Pathao from next year. “Around 40,000 autorickshaw drivers will come under this service,” Shakhawat Hossain Dulal, secretary of Dhaka Autorickshaw Workers’ Union said to a news agency.
Autorickshaw drivers said their daily incomes had fallen by a third after ride hailing apps like Uber and Pathao started operations in Bangladesh.
“The number of trips we make has drop,” one driver told the media. “I used to earn about Tk 1, 000 before, but now it has come down to about Tk 300.”
On Monday, autorickshaw workers’ unions in Dhaka and Chittagong called a 48-hour strike on Dec 27-28 to press home their demands, including banning app-based transport services like Uber and Pathao, according to a press statement. The move drew widespread condemnation from commuters. Companies running the ride sharing apps reportedly invited auto-rickshaw owners and drivers to join them.
According to a source, there are over 26,000 autorickshaws in Dhaka and Chittagong.
