MULTAN: With the growing needs of transportation among masses, the business of rent-a-motorcycle has been increased leaving rent-a-car business due to high prices of petrol across South Punjab especially in rural areas.
A large number of persons have established motorcycle rental shops in their local areas including towns, villages and streets of the region.
Most of people have also left the business of rent-a-car and converted it to rent-a-motorcycle due to low risk of default while some people are carrying out this business as a part time to earn reasonable income on daily basis.
A rent-a-motorcycle business owner, Ghulam Mustafa told APP that he was running business for last few years and earning handsome income on daily basis. He said that inflation was rising day by day and the demand of motorcycles was also increasing on daily basis. He said that a total of eight motorcycle available at his shop on rent but the customers were more the double of these motorcycles.
He added that he was charging Rs 100/hour from his customers and his daily income was more than Rs 2500 to 3000 which is sufficient to fulfill basic needs of his family.
Another rent-a-motorcycle owner, Aftab Hussain said that he was running rent-a-car business from last five years but now he converted the business into rent-a-motorcycle and he was also offering motorcycles on easy installments to people.
He said that expenses for running rent-a-car business were unaffordable now as he has to pay rent of the shop, maintenance of cars, salary of staff members, electricity bills and other expenses adding that not even of single thing was required for running rent-a-motorcycle business. He said that he was using guest room of his house as his office and most of his customers were also local that is why the loss risk was almost zero percent.
On the other hand, different students and farmers have also been noticed offering their motorcycles on rent.
Majid Ali informed APP that he used his motorcycle to reach college and now his was offering motorcycle on rent during summer holidays and earning his pocket money on daily basis. He said that he was planning to purchase another motorcycle which would help pay his college fee from his own resources and reduce burden on his parents.
In many rural areas of South Punjab the motorcycles were also being used for transportation as motorcyclists picking up passengers on their motorcycles and charging 30 to 50 rupee fare each passenger from them. Muhammad Anwar, a motorcyclist told the news agency that transporting passengers from bus stands to their homes which help him earning Rs 400 to 500 per day. He said that there was no proper transportation in various rural areas and people preferred motorcycles due to cheap fare and reached the destination in short time.
Muhammad Afzal, a citizen said that he had eight members of the family and have single motorcycle for domestic requirments. “We have to hire motorcycle to meet emergency need”, he said and added that rent-a-motorcycle business was a good facility for the poor.
