The sentence printed on the side of a tuk-tuk bustling through the streets of Ismailia is an implicit, but real threat: “If you want to remain president, treat the tuk-tuk well.”
Indeed, the last successive Egyptian presidents have heeded this warning about the cheap three-wheeled Indian motorized rickshaws.
The sentence printed on the side of a tuk-tuk bustling through the streets of Ismailia is an implicit, but real threat: “If you want to remain president, treat the tuk-tuk well.”
Indeed, the last successive Egyptian presidents have heeded this warning about the cheap three-wheeled Indian motorized rickshaws.
During the ninth conference of the National Party, held in 2007, ousted President Hosni Mubarak boasted: “Sixty-three-thousand of these vehicles were allowed to work in 13 provinces during the second year of the electoral program.” Mubarak considered this “a swift solution to the unemployment problem.” His short-lived successor, Mohamed Morsi, reiterated in a number of his presidential speeches his interest and attention to the owners of these vehicles.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi allowed for the licensing of tuk tuks in the recent amendments to the traffic law passed in July 2014 and those amendments entered into law a month later. However, the law stipulated that the approval of the provinces’ local councils should first be obtained for the licensing of these vehicles. Unofficial figures estimate approximately five million tuk tuks are roaming the streets of Egypt.
In other words, the legality of tuk tuks – which are blamed for being noisy nuisances and the source of chaos and traffic jams in the streets—has been left up to local authorities.
A necessary evil
State agencies have not yet made an effort to legalize tuk tuks, still, their numbers continue to increase as they serve large areas in the country not covered by public transportation.
Ghareeb Abed Rabbo, head of the chamber of trade’s bicycles and tricycles importers division in Cairo said: “Egypt used to import 50,000 vehicles of this kind of vehicle every year, but because of the increase in demand, the number of tuk tuks imported into the Egyptian market increased with the start of export in 2000 to reach 900,000. These vehicles are serving more than 20 million citizens and the volume of business transactions in this activity has reached about 2 billion Egyptian Pounds (US$262 million).”
Importation allowed, but licensing is not
Medhat al-Sabbagh, a tuk-tuk importer explained: “The licensing of the tuk-tuk was the responsibility of the provinces and each province used to set its own rules. For this reason, the door for importation was open without any obstacles until the issuance of the decision taken by the Council of Ministers a few months ago, which banned the importation of the tuk-tuk and only allowed the import of its spare parts for a specified period of time, after which the importation of the tuk-tuk will be allowed again.”
Suspended amendments
Many of the tuk-tuk drivers were happy with the legal amendments because they thought that it would be the first step towards acknowledging the presence of these vehicles. However, Majdi al-Shahed, traffic and security expert said that this will not happen and there is no reason for these drivers to be happy. “The amendments have ignored article 28 of the traffic law which stipulates that local councils should approve the tuk-tuk licensing decisions and this is not happening now, which makes the new amendments meaningless.”
Ahmad al-Qassas, the Governor of Ismailia, suspended the licensing of all tuk tuks and gave all local administrative units, at various levels, a deadline to reconsider their legal status.
Al-Qassas said that he was responding to the concerns of some citizens of Ismailia, who feared that the licensing of the tuk-tuks would allow tuk tuks to roam the city streets, cause traffic jams and spoil the beauty of this quiet city. However, he confirmed that he did not ban tuk tuk licensing, but he gave the heads of villages and neighborhoods the power to investigate this issue according to the circumstances of each village and neighborhood.
On specifying a certain transportation rate for the tuk-tuk passengers, in order for the state to benefit from the fees paid by people and to allow tuk tuk drivers the opportunity to freely drive their vehicles in the city, al-Shahed said that it is almost impossible because it is very difficult to install counting devices in these vehicles similar to the ones installed in taxi cars. It is also difficult to monitor tuk-tuks inside villages, he said.
I regret licensing my tuk-tuk
Thirty-year-old Hamid al-Sayyed, who lives in Sarabium village, said that he was the first one to support the village’s decision five years ago, to license tuk-tuks. He immediately paid the specified fees which were equal to approximately 600 Egyptian pounds per year (US $79) and could be paid in installments.
Al-Sayyed licensed his tuk-tuk for many reasons, he said. First, unlicensed tuk-tuks, which are driven by young people, cannot move around freely and are dangerous. Second, the license is a guarantee for the integrity of his profession. Third, a license makes retrieving a stolen tuk-tuk easier and in the event of an accident, a licensed tuk-tuk faces less trouble.
Although Hamid regrets licensing his tuk-tuk, as tuk-tuk owners since the revolution, have been allowed to work without licensing their vehicles, however, he said he is currently ready to abide by the new law because the circumstances have become more stable. Nonetheless, he hopes to get an exemption from the government from paying new fees, a promise which was made by some officials.
Muhamamad Jad, the head of Sarabium village said 2000 tuk tuks were operating there. “Licensing will bring income to the treasury of the state and it will build a database on all owners of tuk-tuks. This will make it easy to track them when there are the public security is violated.”
While he admits mistakes were made with the first attempt at village-wide licensing— for example, during the revolution, drivers stopped paying their fees— says the state must mainly ensure the provision of traffic policemen in villages in order to ensure the application of the new amendments to the law on tuk-tuks, or it should give the judicial police powers to the head of the village or to one of the employees to enforce the law on violators.
Amendments to the amendments
Dr. Ahmad al-Najjar, professor of transport and space engineering at the University of Alexandria said the tuk-tuk creates problems, but it has also become a reality which cannot be overlooked because it affects the lives of thousands of young people who depend on it for their living. Also, millions of people who use this vehicle as their main means of transportation in streets and alleys where cars cannot go.
Al-Najjar confirmed that the solution to the crisis may be too simple and it lies in modifying the recently made amendments to the new traffic law to allow traffic departments to license these vehicles without waiting for the decisions of the local authorities. He also suggested the issuance of a special law to regulate tuk-tuks, especially because the numbers of this vehicle is rapidly increasing and may become higher than the numbers of cars, which have a law that regulates them.
On the other hand, al-Najjar believes that it might be difficult to repeat some of the experiences of Asian countries which have allocated special lanes for motorcycles and tuk-tuks in major cities because most of the streets in the Egyptian cities have been designed decades ago, and therefore it is difficult to add new lanes to these streets. Moreover, it is not proper to allocate a lane for a vehicle carrying 2 or 3 persons only. This will narrow the roads for vehicles carrying dozens of passengers.
