Covid-19 And Road Ahead For Sri Lanka's Three-wheeler Industry

Sri Lanka has been under curfew since mid-March to contain the spread of COVID-19. As a result, economic activities throughout the country have stalled. A recent Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) blog identified that non-agricultural, informal workers were highly affected by this pandemic.

- Thisali De Silva And Nisha Arunatilake

This article illustrates how the ongoing curfew is impacting the three-wheeler drivers in Sri Lanka, based on mobile phone conversations with a sample of 14 three-wheeler drivers from the Colombo, Kegalle and Galle districts.

According to the Labour Force Survey 2018, 59 percent of the employed in Sri Lanka are engaged in informal employment and nearly half (49 percent) of non-agricultural workers are informal workers.

Driving three-wheeler taxis is one of the top occupations among informal, non-agricultural workers. About 6 percent of the total employed were three-wheeler drivers in 2018. (This amounts to 235,271 drivers, according to the 2016 Labour Force Survey data, which is likely to be an underestimate.

More realistically, the number is estimated to be approximately 544,804, using the total registered number of three-wheelers.) The majority of three-wheeler drivers operate in the Colombo, Gampaha and Kandy districts (Figure 1). Incidentally, these are the districts most affected by the curfew.

Impact of curfew on three-wheeler industry

When the curfew is lifted periodically, the three-wheeler drivers in rural and suburban areas can get a few hires, mostly from their acquaintances and neighbours. This is not possible in urban areas, due to high traffic. According to the urban drivers, during high traffic, the profit margin is low and it is not worthwhile to operate three-wheelers.

“No work since the curfew was imposed. Vehicle is there but cannot go out, even to find something to sell, due to the curfew,” said a three-wheeler driver from Maradana.