The crowded, chaotic and bulging streets of Karachi now have a new member to share the road with – a ‘rik.’
Frustrated by seeing women being harassed on the streets and in door-less rickshaws by men on motorbikes, Mohsin Abbas came up with the idea of introducing a rickshaw service similar to phone-in cab services. Soon, ‘Call-a-Rik’ was in the works. Abbas, with his son-in-law, thought up a rickshaw service that would turn up at your doorstep and provide you with an experience similar to what you would expect in a plane ride.
Abbas’ ‘rik’ has doors, spacious seats, sliding windows, an LCD TV and headphones – all for 10 rupees per kilometre.
His wife, Rehana Moshin, who has inadvertently become the spokesperson for Call-a-Rik, describes the rickshaw as a mini-cab.
So far, the Call-a-Rik fleet comprises 27 rickshaws and Abbas plans to expand it to 72 rickshaws, in addition to topping them up with additional features.
Since providing security, especially to women and children, was Abbas’ main concern when he decided to build these rickshaws, the riks are tracked online through a GPS, which provides the dispatch office with the rik’s exact location every 10 seconds.
Soon, Abbas plans to add cameras in the rickshaw – which will send images to the headquarters every 15 seconds as well.
Along with security features, customer service is also emphasised in the Call-a-Rik offices – every customer receives an electronic receipt, via text message, to inform them that their rickshaw has been booked and estimated time of arrival.
Just like in the aviation industry, which is where Abbas finds his roots, the rik too has cancellation charges and similarly, rickshaw drivers are called ‘captains.’
Launched less than a month ago, these blue and white vehicles have taken off with a bang in Karachi. Rehana Mohsin says they have had to cancel on customers and have expanded the business hours to midnight.
The Abbas’s have had interested investors call in from Lahore and as far as Germany.
Other than security features, Abbas also hopes that the riks will provide a smoother travelling experience for clients by reducing pollution through closed doors and decreasing noise pollution with the headphones and in-house entertainment provided.
This way, when someone gets back home from a long day at work, they have the energy to spend time with their family, instead of recovering from a hot and noisy journey home, explains Abbas.
So far, the Call-a-Rik service charges a minimum of a 100 rupees, so it is economical for people travelling at least 10 kilometres, although the owners emphasise that calling a rik to your doorstep is free.
“I think we had good intentions when we started Call-a-Rik” says Rehana, and she attributes the service’s success to the same. – Video by Zehra Naqvi/Dawn.com, reported by Sara Faruqi/Dawn.com
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May Allah bless you, you sound sincere and a good role model for others.
If we fix ourselves, everyone around us will get the sweet smell and baraka will spread.
FANTASTIC IDEA.
This vehicle is used in New York City by traffic wardens.
Salute to Mr. Abbas for his innovative approach and inspiring actions…. we can all sit and crib about our country and blame our government and politicians but as long as we have people like abbas amongst us i am very hopeful for this country…. Hopefully one day many of us can become responsible citizens……
ditto, ….Islam allows one to make money the halal way, and this is good example…improving the life and making money is what we need in Pakistan.
garden ali bhai auditorium se saddar atrium malll tak k kitne charges hounge or saray 3 ghantay baad saddar se garden ali bhai tak k total charges kitne hounge
aap charges bata dein toh mujhe aaj raat saddar ki booking krwani hai
Fantastic; rare good news from Pakistan!
How do we contact them?
0331-2455745
Don’t let the criminals hijack your excellent service to karachites
Rickshaw with LCD TV on PK/Karachi streets, well I pray that these TVs wont got stolen but I doubt my prayers will be heard before they will be already gone.
Excellent work.. Great entrepreneurial thinking..
Appreciate the operator’s guidance on insurance clause for passengers and mileage rate
Keep this service initialy for a very selected and known clientele, , before going for any further expansion(s), a service at business hubs & corporates sector, preference to ladies and school children,
bringing this type of rickshaw will increase LOOT it woulb be easy for all criminals to catch and hijack the auto and loot
great job. Best wishes.
Good idea, I suggest that Karachi Administration should allow “RIK” also for private use with non-commercial number plate specially for those Motorcycle owners who carry their family members usually (3 to 4) on Motorcycle, as they can not effort to buy a car.
interesting idea. Will work well in India too.
GREAT achievement for yr noble cause and a touch of hubbulawaam feelings for karachi city.
May ALLAH (swt) shower His Roohani Khayr-o-Barkat in yr home (Ameen). It might have been
extra attraction to avoid any un-wanted happening by fixing a spy-camera inside yr ‘mini-rikCab
Could you please favour me with yr e-mail address alongwith phone/mobile nbrs. Thanking
you in advance.
0331-CALLRIK (2255745) http://www.callarik.com
Wonderful enterpreneu idea. Wish U all the best
My suggestion is to do a full background check before hiiring the drivers. Plus it would be great to have them wear a uniform instead of all different types of funky clothing.
Well done! Anything that helps the common people will not sit well with the hoodlums running our country. They don’t want a happy nation. They want a needy nation that can be taken advantage of. More importantly, if a large chunk of the profits does not find its way to bank accounts of the leadership, expect a lot of turbulence and possibly all kinds of threats. Our prayers (because that’s all we got) is for the success of this business and for other such businesses started by common, innovative, hard working people who only want life of the common people to get a little more comfortable.
way to go .. marvellous job
Reblogged this on Tahir's Blog and commented:
should be replicated in all main cities to begin with!