Bike taxis that facilitate sharing of pillion seats in motorcycles are not permitted to operate in Tamil Nadu.

No permission for bike taxis in TN, reveals RTI query. Two-wheelers are not permitted to be operated for commercial purposes in Tamil Nadu,” said the Public Information Officer of the CTRS responding to a Right to Information petition.

Presently, bike taxi permits are not issued in Tamil Nadu. Further, two-wheelers are not permitted to be operated for commercial purposes in the State, the official said in response to the RTI on furnishing details of bike taxi permits in the State.

However, bike taxi aggregators like Rapido are operating in the State based on a judgment given by the Madras High Court in August 2021. A Division Bench then stayed the operation of an order passed by a single judge restraining Hyderabad-based Roppen Transportation Services from operating their mobile app Rapido in Tamil Nadu until the State government frames regulations for services such as carpooling, bike taxi and call taxi.

The Centre, later in August last year, issued a notification amending the Motor Vehicle Act, by allowing the use of all types of two-wheelers, including electric vehicles as transport vehicles, all eyes are now on Tamil Nadu government over legalizing bike taxis.

Although the Centre has reiterated that two-wheelers should be allowed for commercial purposes, bike taxis are yet to be permitted. However, these have been put to use for the past few years. “The Centre recently issued a gazette notification allowing battery-operated two-wheelers to operate as rental vehicles. Already we have sent a proposal for amending the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Rules to allow bike taxis. The proposal is under consideration of the government,” said a senior transport official.

The State motor vehicle rules categorize two-wheelers as non-transport vehicles and are not permitted for commercial purposes. In 2019, following the crackdown of traffic police and RTOs on bike taxis, the services were temporarily suspended in Chennai. On litigation, the Madras High Court asked the government to consider permitting the bike taxis.

Within a month, the Union government amended the Central Motor Vehicle Act authorizing States to grant permission for app-based cab services. Following this, the transport department held consultation meetings with trade unions of auto rickshaws and call taxis and sent a proposal for amending legislation for regulating cab aggregators as well as bike taxis.

“Bike taxis are proposed to run with yellow boards. Once TN motor vehicle rules are amended, fares for call taxis and bikes will be fixed. The government has not taken a policy decision yet,” explained the transport official. The proposal had been delayed as a section of call taxi drivers opposed some of the provisions.

To a question in RTI about whether usage of two-wheeler for delivery/commercial purpose and as bike taxis via apps need any permit from the transport department or any department, the official responded that there is no such permission given.

Insights:-

Have you taken a ride on a motorbike, using a bike taxi app, as you do on Ola and Uber? 
Then, little do you know that the bike taxi is illegal and there is no provision in the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle rules for a bike taxi.

Two weeks ago, Ola taxi drivers lodged a complaint with the Road Transport department that illegal bike taxis have increased in the city. Hearing the plea of the taxi drivers, Chennai (North-West) RTO S Sridharan seized 10 vehicles that were booked through a popular bike rental app.

“The risk factor in such bikes is high. Unlike Ola and Uber, where the drivers work on contract permits for a company, the bikers of rental apps have their own vehicles, with no accountability and safety to the rider,” said Sridharan.
“On Monday we booked a bike through the app and waited for the riders to arrive. The vehicle registration number that was given on the mobile app was different from the bike that arrived,” he added.

In the rental bike apps, most of the drivers are already working in private companies, and surprisingly, some of them are already working for popular food delivery apps.
There are youngsters who depend on some income until they get salaried jobs. In order to make quick money, they are now getting into bike taxi apps not knowing it is illegal, said a police officer.
An individual taking a ride in a taxi is covered with insurance, road tax, and a proper permit, and moreover, if the driver tries to kidnap the person, it is easy to track the driver through documents that are accessed at the office of the company.

But in case of bikes, if the driver kidnaps the pillion-rider it will be much more difficult to trace since it is his own vehicle, said a Road Transport Officer from Coimbatore.

“Not knowing that the bike taxi apps are illegal in Tamil Nadu, many silver-screen celebrities and social media influencers promote these apps and rides through their social media pages,” said a senior police officer. Around 20 bikes were seized by different Road Transport Officers in different parts of the city.

Meanwhile, the co-founder of a Hitch Biker app told Express that their bikers were not booked since it is a bike-sharing platform, which encourages hitchhiking to reduce the cost of the travel to a particular distance.

“We don’t have a commission or salaried riders. If you are staying at Mylapore and intend to reach Central Station, the app will show some drivers who are ready to drop you and the rider will have to bear the transport charge alone,” he added.

Why Tamil Nadu high court ban Rapido App?

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In order to raise the level of customer satisfaction, an organization must follow global benchmarks for quality. This can be attained with the ISO certification.

However, in the absence of quality benchmarks, the credibility of products & services goes down. Sometimes, this may result in the devaluation of the services in the eyes of law.

This is what has happened in the most recent case of the ban on the Rapido App in Tamil Nadu.

The Madras High Court last July banned Rapido which provides bike-sharing services. The order stated that the ban shall be in place in Tamil Nadu till the state government formulates necessary regulations in this regard.

According to the order passed by Justice G Jayachandran, the court has refused to allow Google Inc and Apple India Private Limited to reinstate the Rapido bike taxi app on their app stores. The court has also directed Rapido to not offer its services in Tamil Nadu till the state government puts appropriate regulations in place regarding bike taxis.

Rapido had petitioned the Madras High Court after the Chennai Commissioner of Police ordered Google and Apple to take down the bike-sharing app from their mobile application services. This is since the app violated provisions of the law in Tamil Nadu.

While Rapido contented that it was merely carrying out an innovative business model and lack of regulations cannot be a reason to punish its business, the state government maintained that two-wheelers cannot operate as commercial vehicles and that it was in the process of framing rules regarding the operation of aggregators of call taxi, bike taxi and carpooling.

Rapido is an app that connects commuters who are seeking a ride to ones that have an empty seat on their two-wheelers. It essentially connects commuters with riders going in the same direction for a fee. Anybody can register as a Rapido captain if they have a two-wheeler and a valid driving license. Once registered, the company claims to verify the documents and adds them to its database of captains, who will then be allotted rides based on the route they take.

This was flagged by the Chennai police as illegal since two-wheelers are not permitted to operate as commercial vehicles in Tamil Nadu.

What the laws in Tamil Nadu say

The Motor Vehicles Act 1988 governs all the aspects of road transport vehicles in India. Every state is allowed to frame its own rules to monitor and regulate the motor vehicles in its state. Accordingly, Tamil Nadu also has its own set of rules governing motor vehicles over and above the Motor Vehicles Act at the national level.

Motor vehicles are broadly classified as transport and non-transport vehicles. Loosely put, transport vehicles are those which engage in commercial operations (buses, trucks, goods carriages, etc) and are generally identified with a yellow number plate.

non-transport vehicles are those that ply for non-commercial purposes, or for private purposes. These are generally identified with registration plates in colors other than yellow. While commercial vehicles are subject to rules of GST and other regulations (insurance, driver licensing, permits etc) to operate, private vehicles are exempt from taxation rules and specific licensing.

As per these rules, two-wheelers in Tamil Nadu (motorcycles) are classified only as non-transport vehicles. This means that bikes and scooters in Tamil Nadu cannot operate as commercial vehicles like a cab or autos.

While Ola and Uber also operate taxi services on a similar mechanism, the main bone of contention seems to be that cars are allowed to run as ‘transport vehicles’ whereas two-wheelers are not allowed to do so, yet.

‘Services should be legally compliant

As of Tuesday, around five days since the Madras High Court banned bike-sharing services, Chennai residents were still able to download the app from Google Playstore, while Apple has taken it down. Rides were also available on the app for the users, claims Aruna Natarajan, a Chennai-based journalist.

Aruna had used a Rapido ride a few days ago before the court banned it. “Because I was in a mad hurry to get somewhere,” she says adding that cabs and autos would have taken a long time to reach the spot. Users also say that Rapido allowed them to take a break from riding their own vehicle through Chennai’s traffic.

Bala Pratipraj, a Chennai-based marketing employee says that bike taxis are much cheaper than cabs or autos and can easily navigate through narrow gaps on the traffic-laden road.

Though she was impressed with the prompt service of Rapido, Aruna agrees that such innovative ideas must work within the framework of the law.

“There’s always been the issue world over with rideshare services where the tech/business model has been a step ahead of the law,” she points out. She, however, puts the onus of bringing in the required regulations on the companies.

“I do think these services should be legally compliant. So, they must push for a change in the law that would allow them to operate within that framework rather than outside it,” she explains.

Bike-taxi services in Hyderabad have also come under severe criticism. In April, a software engineer died after he met with an accident while riding a pillion on a bike-sharing service. While the bike-taxi service providers are supposed to carry an ISI-certified helmet for the pillion rider and a first aid kit, many users have confirmed that the companies seldom follow this.

1. What is the case of the Rapido App Ban in Tamil Nadu?

Recently, the Madras High Court has banned the popular bike taxi booking app ‘Rapido’. This app provides bike-sharing services to people all over India. According to the High court order passed by Justice G Jayachandran, the ban shall exist in Tamil Nadu until the Tamil Nadu government brings any further regulations in this respect.

2. What does the Rapido App do?

Rapido is a very popular mobile application that provides motorbike-sharing services at low fare across India. It is mainly used by the people living in densely populated metros.

• People generally use this app to book bike taxis during peak hours, when there’s there is huge traffic.
• After booking a bike taxi, the bike rider, also called “Captain”, quickly comes to pick up the passenger.
• These bike taxis come in handy as compared to other cabs, as they are convenient on congested roads. Plus, they are available at a cheap fare.

3. Why has Madras High Court banned Rapido App?

The Madras high court has banned the Rapido App because it has violated the traffic norms and other necessary compliance. Over 175 bikes, 96 from Chennai alone have been fined around ₹2,000-4,000 for misuse of the permit, as per the Tamil Nadu traffic department.

4. Which rules have been violated by Rapido App?

According to the Madras high court, Rapido App has violated traffic norms and other compliance.

• The road transport rules in India are governed under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988.
• Every state has its own rules for motor vehicles. According to traffic norms in Tamil Nadu, 2-wheelers can’t operate as commercial vehicles. Hence, in this case, bike taxis are operating illegally.
• Moreover, many bikes with temporary number plates run freely on the roads.
• Commercial vehicles are also required to follow the norms of GST registration, which these bikes do not follow.

5. What is the business model of the Rapido App?

As per the Rapido business model-

• Anyone can get registered as a Rapido “captain” if he has a 2-wheeler and a driving license. A Rapido “captain” is not a trained rider. The company claims to authenticate the documents and adds him to the database as “captains”.
• He will then be allotted the ride based on the route he takes.
• The Chennai traffic police have quoted this business model as purely illegal.
• Thus, Madras high court has banned the Rapido App.
• Court has also ordered Google and Apple to delist the Rapido bike taxi app from their app stores.

Besides, Rapido will not be able to offer its services in Tamil Nadu till the ban is lifted.