Around 50,000 bike taxi drivers in Delhi have collectively written a letter to Delhi Lieutenant Vinai Kumar Saxena and the Delhi government. They have expressed concerns about their possible job losses because of the approval of the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme, 2023.
The scheme has made it mandatory for aggregators providing passenger services to transition exclusively to electric two-wheelers for new vehicles. Transition to electric vehicles is seen as one of the steps needed to solve the air pollution problem in the national capital region.
Notably, the Delhi LG VK Saxena has granted his approval to the scheme and the policy is likely to be notified soon. However, the Bike Taxi Associations have expressed concerns that the scheme poses an imminent challenge for bike taxi operators.
The Apna Bike Taxi Association has sent an open letter to Lt Governor V K Saxena and the Delhi government, as reported by news agency PTI. In their open letter, they have issued an appeal to the authorities to address their grievances which according to them have gone unheard so far.
The letter has highlighted the serious challenges posed by the Delhi government’s New ‘Electric Vehicle scheme’. According to the Bike Taxi Association, it is not feasible for all taxi drivers currently using petrol motorcycles to switch to electric two-wheelers. They have further argued that neither there are enough electric bike taxis in the market nor all drivers have enough money to make the mandatory switch.
The letter read, “We feel that the government should understand that if someone is riding a petrol motorcycle, how can they suddenly get an electric bike? Neither are there electric bike taxis available in the market nor do we have the money to buy them.”
The recent development follows a prior letter written by over 1,500 bike taxi drivers to the LG. In the previous letter, the drivers urged the Lieutenant Governor to grant them the same timeline for transitioning to electric vehicles as has been allowed for their counterparts in delivery services.
The earlier letter stated, “We request that the policy remains the same for all bikes, if a bike is allowed on the road to undertake commercial work like delivering goods, food, groceries, etc, then it should also be allowed as a bike taxi as well. If the argument is to convert to EVs, we request that we be given the same parity and timeline to convert to EVs as has been afforded to the delivery sector”.
The policy
Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme, 2023, was cleared by the Delhi government on October 18, which was approved by the LG on 25 November. Under this policy, the entire vehicle fleet of all the aggregators, delivery service providers and e-commerce entities in Delhi has to transition to electric by April 1, 2030.
The policy has mandated 100% electric vehicles in the new fleet for two-wheeler aggregators, while staggered transition has been allowed for three-wheelers, four-wheelers and delivery service providers. Aggregators with three-wheelers have to achieve the target of 10% EVs in their new fleet within six months of the implementation of the scheme, 50% in 2 years and 100% in four years. The aggregators with four-wheelers have to achieve the target of 5% EVs in new fleet in six months, 50% in three years and 100% in five years.
Similarly, for delivery service providers the target for two-wheelers and three-wheelers is 10% in six months, 50% in 2 years and 100% in four years. For four-wheelers run by delivery service providers, the target is 5% EVs in new fleet in six months, 50% in three years and 100% in five years. The policy targets an all-electric fleet of aggregators and delivery services by 1st April 2030.
The policy states that an “aggregator shall be allowed to operate bike taxi (two-wheeler taxi) services, provided that any vehicle being on-boarded as part of the fleet by from the date of commencement
of this scheme shall be Electric Vehicles only”. Therefore, it can be seen that two-wheeler aggregators have been asked to transition to 100% EVs at once for newly added vehicles, while delivery service providers have been allowed 4 years to achieve 100% electric EVs in their fleet.
However, this must be noted that existing vehicles already part of the fleet of the aggregators and delivery service providers will be able to continue to operate, and the electric vehicle rules apply only for vehicles added to the fleet after the scheme is enforced. However, all existing fuel-run vehicles (Petrol/CNG/Diesel propelled) operated by them will have to be removed by 1st April 2030,
