As part of the initiatives to reduce road accidents, transport owners yesterday decided to introduce monthly salaries for drivers and helpers instead of the existing  daily contract or deposit system.

Khandaker Enayet Ullah, general secretary of the Dhaka Road Transport Owners' Association, said bus drivers will hand over their earning every day to the owners, who will pay them a fixed sum at the end of the month.

This is being seen as a big move to curb competition among buses inside Dhaka city.

The decision will be effective from today (Thursday), said Enayet Ullah at a press conference yesterday.

"If anyone violates the deal after tomorrow, we'll recommend cancellation of their registration. If the owner is our member, he/she will be expelled from our association,” said Enayet Ullah.

At present, many owners give their buses to drivers on the basis of a daily agreement. The driver pays a fixed sum of money sought by the owners from their day’s collection from ticket sale. The rest of the money is divided between the driver and helpers.

In this system, the owner runs no risk of losing money.

However, if a day's earnings happen to be inadequate, the drivers and helpers stand to lose. So, buses plying on the same route tend to compete with each other in picking up passengers. This results in reckless driving that often causes fatal accidents.

From now on, however, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) will take legal action against any bus operator persisting with the contractual system, Enayet Ullah said.

"From tomorrow, drivers and workers will run buses on basis of wages,” he added.

He also said that the association will appoint people at each point to ensure that the system of a monthly salary is being followed.

“We'll check at each terminus whether a bus has fitness certification and  its driver has licence.

Buses without proper papers will not be allowed to ply," he further said.

“We give the owners till September 30, by which time they should fix everything,” he said, adding the city corporation should keep ticket counters beside the road to prevent contractual operations.