Last October, I met one of the three-wheel drivers who helped me with providing qualitative information to carry out my bachelor’s degree research project. I asked him to drop me from University of Moratuwa to Dehiwala, as I had to attend to one of the farewell lunch organized by my office mates for myself and two other friends. Since I had a chance to work with the driver before, I was comfortable with having a chat with him and discussed about the life of a three-wheel driver.
He is a very nice gentleman which helped to progress the chat smoothly. His wife is doing a small business near the university premises and his intention is to grow that retail business and once it becomes a success, his idea is to stop driving the three-wheeler and join with the business.
Having two jobs generally reduce the risk of reducing income, I asked him why he is planning to stop driving three-wheelers. His answer was not something I expected, which forced me to look at this job and the people in this industry in a different angle.
He told me few stories to explain the risk of the job he is involved in. Some of these are his experiences while the others were experienced by his friends
1. Get paid less
This three-wheel driver’s base location is just outside the university, opposite side of the road. If a university student needs to take a tuk-tuk, they must cross the road from the adjacent zebra crossing and come towards them. So, the three-wheel drivers tend to think whoever comes from that direction is a stakeholder of a university, which automatically elevates the level of trust of the prospective passenger.
One day, two gentlemen came towards this driver – from the direction I mentioned earlier and asked him to drive near the ‘Aluth Kadey’ courts, which is situated about 20kms away from his base location. The three-wheel driver accepted the hire. After some distance, one of the two gentlemen who got in said “අඩෝ රුපියල් 200ක් දීපන්!!” (Give me 200 rupees!!), the driver got angry a little with the words this gentleman used and said “මහත්තයා හරියට කතාකරන්න ඉගෙනගන්න!” (Sir, mind your language!). Later, the passengers asked to stop the tuk-tuk and mentioned that they will come around 20 minutes. The driver accepted that and waited till they arrive. They did not come in 20 mins as agreed, so he started to look for the passengers. What he saw was these two guys getting high with some illegal drugs. The three-wheel driver got really angry and after with some great amount of effort the three-wheel driver was able to get some portion of his fare.
2. Charity Rides for Couples
Again, the same three-wheel driver faced an issue where another young couple came from the university asked to go to Mt. Lavinia. They also mentioned that they have to get some work done in Mt. Lavinia and asked the driver to wait for 15 minutes. The driver accepted the request and waited for 15 mins. The couple did not return within the agreed time and still, he decided to stay till they come. Even after waiting there for two hours, the couple did not come. As the driver said, he has never seen them after that incident.
3. Jail ride
One day, near the Katubedda junction, the man suddenly approached towards a passenger less three-wheeler which was on move and asked for a quick hire. The driver did not have a reason to reject him and offered the hire. The passenger paid the required fare at the destination and left as usual.
Later on that day, a police officer came and asked to come to the police station to get a statement. The police mentioned that a complaint has been filed that his three-wheeler was used for a robbery. This person had no idea what the police was saying and mentioned that he did not do a robbery. However, police did not accept this, and he was sent to the jail for a week.
What actually happened was the person who got into the three-wheeler had robbed a chain from a lady and soon after the robbery he got into the three-wheeler for the hire. The lady thought this as an organized robbery with the help of the three wheel driver and she called the police and gave the vehicle number to the police to track the thief.
4. Spend the night in an isolated place
In an evening, three people got into this driver’s three-wheeler and asked him to go for a hire near Dompe, Piliyandala. Dompe, Piliyandala is a place where you can easily find an isolated / less crowded place. Then these passengers asked the driver to stop the three-wheeler near a less crowded place and asked the driver to get out of the three-wheeler and tied him to a light pole and mentioned to him that they are taking this three-wheeler for three days and he would be able to find the three-wheeler near the Dompe area on the fourth day.
The three-wheel driver had to spend the night while being tightened and on the next day morning some people had rescued him. Also, as mentioned, he was able to find the three-wheeler on the fourth day and the three-wheeler was in the same condition as it was stolen.
The driver sold the three-wheeler within the next few weeks and quit driving three-wheelers forever.
So what is the solution?
With these incidents, it is now clear that three-wheel drivers have to struggle a lot in their day-to-day life with this complex social system. With these examples, it is also clear that you cannot judge a passenger from the way he/she looks, etc.
So as a solution, they can choose one option. That is to dress/behave like a thug so that they will not have to face situations as people who want to do such activities will not approach them assuming that the driver is the alpha male. On the flip side of it, a normal passenger would also think twice to get into the three-wheeler if he looks like a thug.
I am not saying all the three-wheel drivers who are acting like thugs are innocent people. But at least now we can get an idea about the complexity of the different kind of people they meet in their day-to-day life.
Yes, sometimes what you see is bit different to the reality.
Feel free to share your own experience.
Thenuwan Jayasinghe
KnowMaga