The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has approved 12 ride sharing companies in line with the Ride-sharing Service Guidelines 2017 to legalize their services in the country.
The services of Pick Me Ltd, Computer Network System Limited, Obhai Solutions Ltd, Chaldaal Limited, Pathao Limited, Easier Technologies Ltd, Akash Technologies Ltd, Sejesto Ltd, Shohoz Ltd, Uber Bangladesh Ltd, Buddy Ltd and Akiz Online Limited were approved to get the enlistment certificates from the BRTA recently.
The BRTA in July started the process to issue enlistment certificates to the ride sharing services as earlier there was no legal basis for the ride sharing companies to operate in the country.
On Tuesday, Pathao got the enlistment certificate from the BRTA.
App-based ride-hailing services were launched in the capital in May 2015, and more than two dozen service providers have been operating in the country since then.
The cabinet in January last year approved “Ride-Sharing Service Guideline 2017”.
While the number of ride sharing service companies increased over the years, so are the complaints from riders. But the BRTA could not take action against any misdeeds of ride sharing companies for lack of any guideline to regulate the service providers.
According to BRTA officials ride sharing cars cannot charge more than the fare fixed under the Taxicab Service Guidelines 2010.
Currently, the government-fixed fare for taxis is Tk85 for the first two kilometers and Tk34 for each subsequent km. Passengers have to pay waiting charge of Tk8.50 for every two minutes, according to the guideline.
