Rickshaw drivers face regulation as NTA seeks law change

The National Transport Authority (NTA) is to seek to have the law changed so that it can introduce regulations for bicycle rickshaws.

The move has been a long time coming: Dublin City councillors frequently complain about rickshaws at meetings of the council’s Transportation committee and the NTA sought legal advice on how to deal with the issue more than a year ago.

The problem was that the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 only applied to motorised vehicles and did not apply to pedal powered rickshaws.

But now the NTA will make a formal request to the Department of Transport to have the legislation amended to include provisions for rickshaws. A spokeswoman for the authority said the two bodies have been in talks over the past few weeks and the formal request will be issued “in the next couple of days”.

She said the change in the law will allow the NTA to put a regulatory regime in place. However she added that it was too early to say exactly what sort of regulation will be introduced. “We are not ion a position to work on it until we’ve got legislative permissions to do it,” she said.

The news was welcomed by rickshaws.ie, the largest company operating the bikes in Dublin, which said it had been pressing for regulations for the past two years. “We are all for it,” a company spokesman said, because it will “get the cowboys out”.

Issues he said he’d like to see tackled include poorly maintained bikes, bikes without lights and indicators, uninsured bikes and dangerous cycling (such as going to wrong way on a one way street).

The spokesman said rickshaws.ie has a fleet of about 40 bikes which it rents out to self-employed cyclists who then work on a “tips for trips” basis. The company trains the cyclists and has mechanics who maintain the bikes.

The spokesman added that the number of rickshaws on Dublin streets has fallen in the past year. He put this down to a Garda and Revenue operation last August which saw 100 bikes inspected for road worthiness, driver identity and other issues.

Rickshaws have already been banned in Galway city where councillors voted to discontinue a licensing .