Owners ban plying bus on contract basis [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Owners ban plying bus on contract basis

Local August 09, 2018

Dhaka Road Transport Owners’ Association on Wednesday decided that they would not allow city service buses to operate under ‘contract or target system’ from today in Dhaka, which they said would reduce road accidents.
The transport staffers, including drivers and their assistants, would now get fixed wage on a daily basis.
‘We have found that contract system instigates drivers to drive recklessly which causes road accidents,’ said the association general secretary, Khandakar Enayet Ullah, at a press briefing.
If any bus ran under the contract system, the association would tell the authorities concerned to cancel registration of that company
and they would cancel its membership of the association, he warned.
The decision came after students, mostly from schools and colleges, took to the streets across the country demanding trial in the killing of two of their fellows in Kurmitola bus accident while two Jabal-e-Nur company buses were in a race to get passengers on July 29.
Unholy competition of buses, even under the same company, is a very common factor in city transport sector due to contract system which is regularly causing fatal accidents.
Under contract system, owners take a fixed amount from the daily income of a bus while the staffers get the rest, be it big or small.
As a result, the drivers remain under extra pressure to get as many passengers as possible by beating other buses in the race on the same route and taking passengers from everywhere.
The memory of the tragic accident of Government Titumir College student Rajib Hossain is still fresh. He lost his right forearm in a competition of two reckless buses at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka on April 4 this year and he later died on April 17.
Just after a day, on April 5, in New Market area in capital, Ayesha Khatun, a homemaker and mother of two children, was trapped between two competing buses of Bikash Service which sandwiched her rickshaw and damaged her spinal cord permanently.
‘This system is totally illegal. Buses should be run systematically under companies and by selling tickets,’ Bangladesh Road Transport Authority director for operation Sitangshu Shekhor Biswas told New Age.
The owners’ association organised the briefing at BRTC Bhaban in the capital to announce their eight decisions made at a meeting of the owners on the day.
Enayet Ullah said that they had earlier asked the owners not to run buses under contract system but they did not pay heed.
But from now on, he warned, the transport staffers must go by fixed wages on daily basis.
‘We request city corporations in Dhaka two reintroduce the counter system,’ he said, adding that it would help further to stop contract system.
From today, representatives of owners and workers would take position at the starting points at Saidabad and Mohakhali bus terminals to check fitness certificate, route permit and driving licences of city service buses and their drivers, he assured.
If any vehicle was found without these documents, it would not be allowed to run, he said.
He also said that transport owners and workers gave their full support to the Road Transport Bill 2018 which got final approval from the cabinet on Monday.
He added that they had asked the owners to make their buses and minibuses good-looking by September 30.
The meeting was attended, among others by, Mohakhali Bus Terminal Owners Association president Abul Kalam, Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Union general secretary Md Karam Ali and Dhaka District Bus-Minibus Road Transport Workers Union general secretary Shahidullah.