Welcome to your ninth issue of Pop Transport, the fortnightly newsletter of the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation.
Informal transportation is very, very popular (e.g.widespread, and for the people).
It overwhelmingly dominates the rapidly growing towns and cities of the Global South. It moves billions and employs millions of people around the world.
That’s why we call this newsletter “Pop Transport.”
In this issue, we’ll share:
A news article from South Africa showing a continuing increase in the use of minibus taxis vs. the decline in the use of rail and buses;
Two reports on the impact of online platforms on employment and the economy in India (from Ola Mobility Institute and from PEAK Urban);
An upcoming webinar to launch VREF’s Shared Mobility and Paratransit program; and,
A recent interview with Mobi Portugal.
Minibus taxi use grows in South Africa despite government investments in rail and buses
A recent article in Business Insider South Africa reports that:
Despite the government’s push for the public to utilise alternative transport options, South African commuters are increasingly relying on the minibus taxi industry for transport.
Taxi financier, Transaction Capital, which reported its six-monthly results to end-March on Wednesday, said the Covid-19 pandemic had helped the taxi industry to remain relevant. In contrast, other modes of transport, most notably busses (sic) and trains, struggled.
The company said more commuters were using taxis at levels exceeding pre-Covid numbers.
Since 2013:
Bus use has declined by 28%
Train use declined by 64%
Minibus taxi use has increased by 16%.
New report on platform jobs from the Ola Mobility Institute
The Ola Mobility Institute just released Unlocking Jobs in the Platform Economy: Propelling India's post-Covid Recovery (pdf download). It looks into the impact of digital work platforms on jobs, (micro) entrepreneurship, income augmentation, and economic growth in India.
The Institute is the in-house research thinktank of Ola Cabs, “India’s largest mobility platform.” Aishwarya Raman, a member of the GPIT Board of Advisors, co-authored the 80+ page report with Sreelakshmi Ramachandran.
Unlocking Jobs:
…analyses data from a large-scale survey of mobility workers with ~5000 participants (3,300 affiliated to platforms and 1,700 non-platform workers), measuring various aspects, such as their income, work hours, access to social security, etc. across 12 cities in India. It also presents case studies from across platform companies to provide a holistic view of the Indian platform economy, and uses this evidence to build a case for a platform-led economic recovery for the post-Covid era.
The report argues that platform based work is here to stay and calls for:
…the reimagining of many labour policies hitherto catering to an old system of classifying workers, and replacing those with inclusive and radical systems designed in tandem with the new world. The global pandemic experience of 2020 helps derive lessons for future thinking. In the post-Covid era, there is an urgent need to reframe the economy as jobs-rich; By harnessing the power of the platform economy, with less investment in hard assets, India can gain large output, thereby creating employment for and boosting employability of its youth.
Raman and Ramachandran have five recommendations:
Restructure social security nets in tandem with classifications recognised in The Code on Social Security, 20201;
Operationalise universal and portable social security schemes with inclusion, equitability and scientific determination as guiding principles;
Facilitate innovation while creating jobs and protecting workers;
Upskill India’s young workforce; and,
Increase the participation of women and persons with disabilities in the economy.
You can download a copy of the report here.
PEAK Urban looks at digital payment systems and inclusion
Serendipitously, PEAK Urban also released a report on the impact of platforms in on informal workers in mobility in India.
Authored by Lucy Baker, Dheeraj Joshi and Tim Schwanen (edited by Francisco Obando). The research:
…outlines the implication of digital payment technologies and credit scoring for self-employed workers operating auto-rickshaw transport services in Bengaluru, India.
Peak Urban’s report finds that:
Auto rickshaw operator-drivers face challenges in adapting to digital payments, including:
Cost and inconvenience of getting cash out
Payment delays when work is mediated by platform aggregators
Difficulty managing household spending using digital payments
It also finds that the majority of operator-drivers are excluded from accessing low-cost bank loans. It recommends that:
Auto rickshaw drivers’ unions and civil society groups can assist operator-drivers, by:
Developing skills and knowledge on topics relating to digital payments and credit scores
Lobbying for improved finance, better access to cash, convenient business start-up, changes to traffic penalty fines, and fairer working conditions (and)
Support through co-operative lending groups to reduce negative finance data
The PEAK Urban project is a joint initiative of five research institutions across the globe. The initiative “produces and explores ground-breaking research on the greatest issues facing the contemporary city…to improve cities’ capacity to address contemporary urban challenges and development dilemmas.”
The collaborative involves the University of Oxford, Peking University, the African Center for Cities, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, and EAFIT University.
You can download the 13-page report here.
VREF launches new program on Informal Public Transport
The Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) launches its new Program Informal Public Transport next month, on the ninth of June via a webinar.
The event will unveil VREF’s process of developing a long-term program for research, education and communication in paratransit (a.k.a., informal transportation) and shared mobility, and kicks-off “a year of consultation which will include commissioning research papers, small scale workshops and other activities to fully design the program for 2022.”
Our very own Benjie de la Peña, CEO of the Shared-Use Mobility Center and chair of the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation, will serve on the panel of experts for the webinar.
More about the webinar here and you can register for free.
(Full disclosure: Henrik Nolmark, VREF’s Executive Director, is also on our Board of Advisors.)
Mobi Portugal features informal transportation
Benjie also helped kicked off a series of online interviews leading to this year’s Mobi Portugal Summit.
Paulo Tavares and Charles Landry, co-curators of Mobi Portugal, led the deeply informative interview where Benjie underscored that informal transportation dominates public mobility in cities of the global south.
You can watch the 40-minute interview here.
That’s it for this week. Do leave us a comment.
Pop Transport is a fortnightly newsletter of the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation. The Partnership works hand-in-hand with informal urban transportation systems of the Global South to advance innovation, improve services, and change business models. By leveraging new technology and innovative policies, we believe these informal networks can confront climate change and make our cities work for everyone.
The Global Partnership for Informal Transportation is a project of NewCities, initiated by Agile City Partners, and, supported by CoMotion Inc.
Our Strategic Partners include: WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and the Shared-Use Mobility Center.
Email us at contact@newcities.org if you are interested in becoming a partner. (Make sure to include “GPIT” in the subject line.)
“An Act [of the Parliament of India] to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers either in theorganised or unorganised or any other sectors and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”