During the budget speech, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa stated that a regulatory authority will be established for regulating Three-wheelers. Although three-wheeler services are vastly spread around the country, there is no mechanism to regulate three-wheeler operations.
The Minister also stated that the need to regulate operations has arisen due to its massive expansion. Accordingly, the authority is expected to make decisions including three-wheeler fares and standardizing services. The government has directed attention to electric three-wheelers and vehicles. 
The three wheeler is the most popular cheap vehicle among the ordinary people who do not have their own vehicles. Even some rich people who have their own vehicles hire three wheelers sometimes in order to meet their transport requirements such as sending children to tuition classes etc. Three wheel is one of the most useful transport mode and a vehicle for Sri Lankans.
But there are certain serious issues connected to three wheeler service and the passengers who use them. Both the three wheeler owners/drivers and the passengers undergo various hardships due to not having a proper authority to address those issues. But now with this budget proposal, the proposed new authority can address all those issues of both three wheeler owners/drivers and the passengers.
Many challenges 
When it comes to three wheeler owners/drivers there are some issues and some of them are life threatening. Nowadays three wheeler drivers face a huge risk when they are doing their job because of the COVID-19 threat. They have to transport all types of passengers including patients and touch their money and sometimes their goods and hands (when old and feeble passengers get on and get off). The other life threatening issue is robbing their three wheelers by robbers pose themselves as ‘passengers’.
The three wheeler drivers can very easily solve those matters but it seems they are very ignorant and waiting to blame others whenever something happen to them or to their three wheelers. They can put a hard polythene cover separating the passengers from the drivers in order to prevent COVID-19 but they rarely do it. They do just to show that they have a polythene cover and not to protect themselves or the passengers who travel with them. Anyone can notice this very clearly when observing various decayed and damaged pieces of polythene they hang just for the sake of hanging a piece of polythene in the middle of their dirty three wheelers. They never remove it and clean it. Most of that cheap polythene cannot be cleaned because they easily tear off.
They can place a good thick polythene cover with number of straps around it to fasten and unfasten regularly in order to wash or sanitize it. But they are not interested because of their low level of education, ignorance and uncultured manner. They never think of the passengers and they are only interested in money paid to them.
The three wheeler drivers can avoid risky long distance trips at night in order to prevent crimes. If they do it, both their lives and three wheelers can be protected. But many three wheeler drivers are only interested in money and not in anything else. Therefore they accept any type of passengers at any time of the day (including midnight) and go any distance without thinking twice. They end up in the hands of criminals who harm the driver and rob the three wheel.
The robbers do not stop there. They use robbed three wheels for other crimes and sometimes sell the three wheeler after placing a fake number plate or disabling them. It is one of the most popular ‘business’ for robbers. But even after media reported the incidents, the three wheeler drivers do not change their behaviour and always fall into trouble.
The new proposed authority will have a huge task ahead when considering those burning issues in the three wheel industry. Those are the main issues from the side of three wheeler owners/drivers.
It was passengers who travel using three wheelers who face grave situations than the three wheel drivers. The issues of passengers are much more serious and high in numbers.
The main issue faced by almost all three wheeler passengers at this moment is COVID-19 threat. Not having a proper polythene cover separating the driver from them is the main issue. Unless the Government makes this a law, no three wheeler driver will place a good polythene cover separating the passengers from the driver. The polythene cover should cover the entire space between the driver and the passengers and it should be thick but transparent. It should be long lasting and removable in order to make sure that it can be cleaned regularly.
The other most common issue is the extremely high cost. Three wheel drivers charge any amount they want and not a specific amount. The passengers who pay at the end of the trip without inquiring the charge before getting in to the three wheeler face the most difficult situation. Most of the three wheeler meters are altered and there are different charges for the same distance. The passengers cannot argue with three wheeler drivers because they are acting like thugs.
Criminal activities 
The other issue is various types of crimes faced by three wheeler passengers. It is women who travel alone or at night who face crimes. Most of the times the criminal is the three wheeler driver. The three wheel driver becomes a criminal whenever he sees a lonely helpless woman during the day or at night. When most three wheeler drivers do is taking them forcibly to a lonely place / house, rob them and then rape them. Sometimes criminal friends of those three wheeler drivers join them in this type of crimes. A large number of such incidents were reported by media during the past few years.
There are common and main reasons for those crimes. The main reason is the educational level and social background of the three wheeler drivers. The majority of three wheeler drivers are uneducated or have a very low level of education. That is why they have become three wheeler drivers. Due to their low level of education they are addicted to drugs and all the other substances and also connected to prostitution and all the other anti social acts, habits and businesses.
They have their own culture. The culture includes loud and huge buffel set, highly decorated three wheel and the passengers have only a small space to sit and no place at all to keep anything inside the three wheel, coloured hair, pierced ears and all the other places in the body, tattoos, etc. None of those are relevant or useful for the passengers. Many of them are just irritations for the passengers.
Many three wheeler drivers do something illegal. That is placing illegal mirrors in order to watch the lower body (especially their legs) of female passengers. After the police banned it, by now some three wheel drivers have removed those mirrors but still there are three wheels with those illegal mirrors.
The proposed authority has a huge task ahead of them. The required laws need to be enacted. A proper monitoring system is required. A hotline needs to be introduced.
A configuration of two wheels in the front and one wheel at the back presents two advantages: it has improved aerodynamics, and that it readily enables the use of a small lightweight motorcycle power plant and rear wheel. This approach was used by the Messerschmitt KR200 and BMW Isetta. Alternatively, a more conventional front-engine, front wheel drive layout as is common in four-wheeled cars can be used, with subsequent advantages for transversal stability (the centre of mass is further to the front) and traction (two driven wheels instead of one). Some vehicles have a front engine driving the single rear wheel, similar to the rear engine driving the rear wheel. The wheel must support acceleration loads as well as lateral forces when in a turn, and loss of traction can be a challenge.
A new tadpole configuration has been proposed with a rear engine driving the front wheels. This concept (Dragonfly Three Wheeler) claims both stability and traction (two driven wheels), as well as a unique driving experience.
With two wheels in the front (the “tadpole” form or “reverse trike”) the vehicle is far more stable in braking turns, but remains more prone to overturning in normal turns compared to an equivalent four-wheeled vehicle, unless the centre of mass is lower and/or further forward. Motorcycle-derived designs suffer from most of the weight being towards the rear of the vehicle.
For lower wind resistance (which increases fuel efficiency), a teardrop shape is often used. A teardrop is wide and round at the front, tapering at the back. The three-wheel configuration allows the two front wheels to create the wide round surface of the vehicle. The single rear wheel allows the vehicle to taper at the back. Examples include the Aptera (solar electric vehicle) and Myers Motors NmG.
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