How Much Does A Trishaw Driver Earn?
Halik has a great post on Upali, a professional trishaw driver. Well worth a read. With it he breaks down some of the numbers involved in the business. I’ve put the prices together to to guess how much profit they make. It’s not too much, really. Upali breaks down his basic operating expenses as follows:
His lease costs him Rs.10,500 a month. Petrol about Rs 500-600 a day. Servicing costs about 7500 every 3 months. But spare parts are a problem. Tyres cost in excess of Rs 2000 and other parts don’t come cheap. This is why its important to use your vehicle very carefully, he thinks. He needs to earn about Rs 2000 to be happy; a decent figure. (Upali: Professional Tuk Tuk Driver)
Trishaw Expenses
I’ve taken those expense and tried to calculate daily/monthly expense as per below.
| COSTS | Cost Per Day | Cost Per Month |
| Lease | 350 | 10,500 |
| Servicing | 83 | 2,500 |
| Parts | 33 | 1,000 |
| Petrol | 550 | 12,100 |
| TOTAL | 1,017 | 26,100 |
One assumption I’ve made here is that a working month is 22 days. So he spends about Rs. 1,200 per working day for a total of Rs. 26,100 for the calendar month.
Trishaw Profits
How profitable is this?
| CATEGORY | Daily Hires (Rs. 200 Per) | Revenue Per Day | Costs Per Day | Profit Per Day | Profit Per Month (22 Days) |
| Low | 5 | 1,000 | 800 | 200 | 4,400 |
| Happy | 10 | 2,000 | 1,200 | 800 | 17,600 |
| High | 15 | 3,000 | 1,600 | 1,400 | 30,800 |
Upali said he’s happy with earning about Rs. 2,000 a day, which works out to about Rs. 17,600. He gets eight days off, as mentioned I’m counting a month as 22 days. If his wife works as well, that could put them into the average Sri Lankan household income of about Rs. 30,000 a month.
I calculated that this would take about 10 hires at an average of Rs. 200 per hire. If he does more, say 15 hires, he can earn about 30,000 per month on his own. The more you work the more profitable it seems to get, as you get beyond the fixed costs of lease and parts.
So it’s not that bad, not that good. It’s a job.
Posted on Friday, September 21st, 2012 in Business, transport.
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i enjoyed reading this post. thanks for doing the math for us.you should also try to educate the public on the tricks that meter trishaws use to cheat the passenger and make extra money. For example, one trishaw driver told me how some drivers manipulate the meter so that the kilometer only has 0.8 (800m) instead of 1.0 (1000m). most passengers keep their eyes on the total cost, instead of the number of kilometres and unknowingly the number of kilometres add up more than it should. Also, i was told that the cost per minute for waiting changes from one trishaw to another. This is ofcourse in addition to huge variation in price for a kilometer. i have travelled in trishaws that charge Rs30 per km and Rs 42km.
I think it depends on the driver you talk to. Because believe it or not some do this as their pass time, retirement ect. And some do few side businesses as well.
One driver I hired from in front of liberty film hall some time back (before the arrival of metered taxies), he offered to take me the baththaramulla half the price that others offered. We had a short chat on the way. It turned out this is his retirement job. One he just do to spend the day. He has worked in middle-east for a long time and come to SL to send his kids to school. He said he also owns a restaurant.
There was another driver I met recently who said he is living in that tall tower like building near beach at bambalapitiya. Dont know how that cost. He also said he is one of the four co-owners of a leading meter taxi company. Gave me his business card so that I can call him any time I need a ride. Also he asked me to mention his name if I ever call the call center of his company so I’ll get quick service.
I think if they play their cards right 3wheel drivers has a good chance of moving up the food chain.