Transport operators sitting idle, counting losses

The violence centring the quota reform protests and associated curfew are preventing trucks and covered vans from plying on the roads and highways, leading to losses for their operators alongside businesses dependent on them.

"We have been totally shut for the last three days," lamented Moqbul Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Covered Van, Truck Panya Paribahan Mailk Samity, an association of transporters.
Ahmed said they mainly transport exports and imports to and from the Chattogram port, which handles around 90 percent of the country's trade.

Given the present situation, garment factory owners are reluctant to dispatch exports fearing attacks on the roads, he said.

At the same time, goods are not being loaded from the Chattogram port due to an internet blackout since July 18, which has impacted the assessment and clearance of imported goods, he said.

There are around 15.5 lakh trucks and covered vans registered with Bangladesh Road Transport Association. Of them, around 3.5 lakh ply the roads and highways on any given day.

The Dhaka-Chattogram highway alone sees roughly 2,000 covered vans daily, Ahmed estimated.
However, he was hopeful that they would be able to operate normally after the curfew was lifted.
Khandker Anayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owner's Association, said owners do not want to risk damage to their vehicles despite incurring huge losses.

As the vehicles have been lying idle for the last couple of days, overall losses of the truckers would amount to at least Tk 175 crore per day if Tk 5,000 is considered as the minimum loss, according to Anayet.

Some vehicles, transporting perishables such as fresh vegetables and fruits, are plying the roads but operators are demanding higher fares as risk premium, he said.

"The fare to transport vegetables has increased by around Tk 10,000 per truck due to the threat of attacks," said Saifur Rahman Chowdhury Sujan, general secretary of Karwan Bazar Wholesale Owner Association.

He informed that it costs around Tk 15,000 to Tk 16,000 to rent a truck to carry vegetables in a normal situation. But it has shot up to Tk 26,000 to Tk 27,000 per truck amid the ongoing curfew and violence.

In the case of mangoes, the fare has gone up to Tk 32,000 per truck from Tk 22,000, fruit and vegetable traders said.

Anayet added that the price of transport services tends to increase when the situation is risky and sometimes trucks are always needed to transport essential goods.

However, RN Paul, managing director of Pran-RFL Group, said big companies were largely unaffected by the price hike.

"As we can meet 80 percent of our needs through our own transport, our costs have not increased. Logistics suppliers meet the remaining 20 percent but corporate clients, who have long-term contracts, are not being charged higher fares," he said.