BENGALURU: Bike-taxis can play a significant role in aiding the public mobility ecosystem in India by offering a low-cost low-emission last-mile solution as well as providing livelihood opportunities to several million Indian youth, the latest survey by KPMG reveals.
With insights garnered from over 2,500 bike-taxi drivers, the KPMG study dives deep into the motivations and concerns of those driving this revolution, offering invaluable perspectives for policy makers and industry stakeholders alike. However, the bike-taxi industry faces legitimacy challenges due to the absence of a uniform nation-wide policy structure, the study said.
On the livelihood potential from the bike-taxis, a potential exists to provide livelihood opportunities to 5.4 million bike-taxi drivers by 2030 and the industry has the potential to provide livelihood to approximately five per cent of the estimated 90 million non-farm jobs required by 2030. The survey said approximately 50 per cent of the drivers chose bike-taxi as gig work in addition to their primary occupation. Also, 83 per cent of the drivers were open to paying an annual permit fee of Rs 1,000-1,200 and that KPMG expects 30-35 per cent electric two-wheeler penetration by 2029-2030.
The recent advisory from MoRTH to all states and Union territories to accept and process the application for contract carriage permits for motorcycles should help tackle the subjectivity, the survey said and added that instead of abandoning the concept it would be key to formulating and adopting policies around safety regulations.
Raghavan Viswanathan, associate partner, Automotive and Electric Mobility, KPMG in India, said, “It’s time states in India start looking at bike-taxis as a solution rather than a problem to their congestion woes. Bike-taxis can provide an extremely efficient last-mile connectivity option for Metros, many of which are struggling with sub-par utilization.”