Delivery boys navigating traffic on a busy road in Doha. Pic:Abdul Basit/ The Peninsula
Among many other factors like speeding, wrong overtaking behind traffic accidents and deaths, reckless motorbike driving by delivery boys motivated by minor financial benefits is also causing many deaths and serious injuries on the roads, said a source at the General Directorate of Traffic.
“The Traffic Department is gearing up this week to release statistics about the number of deaths and injuries due to delivery motorcycle accidents. Among the reasons behind these accidents include incentive from their companies or people encouraging delivery boys to reach fast,” said the source.
“During our investigations of the issue, we discovered that some companies are providing financial incentive to the motorcycle motorists who deliver fast which is a serious risk to their lives and other road users.”
He said that the customers also deal with the delivery agents and always communicate with them offering financial incentive to encourage them to deliver meals quickly, and all these are among the reasons which lead to accidents due to speeding.
“The problem behind the accident of delivery motorcycles is that they are not obeying traffic rules and move from one track to another without taking caution of other vehicles. Also, some of them have many orders and have to deliver them in the shortest possible time,” said a motorist, Ahmed.
He said that they need more training about traffic rules and more monitoring from traffic department specially the authorities should investigate the information which says that some of the delivery boys are getting petty financial incentive from their companies (some) which motivates them to drive recklessly, said another motorist.
When The Peninsula talked to a number of restaurants on the issue, they denied that they used to offer or provide any financial incentive to their delivery boys, saying it is their job and no need to give them any financial incentive.
They further said that the boys usually indulge in speeding when they have more orders to deliver during rush hours.
The managers of different restaurants seeking not to be named also pointed out the importance of raising awareness about this issue and the dangerous of speeding.
The source of the Traffic Department pointed out that the department would highlight the issue and invite all companies working in this field to raise awareness about the motorcycle traffic accidents.
