I visit your site with interest to note that you are following the motorcycle sector in Africa, my Company has a lot of interest in this sector, we are about to open the first training school for motorcycle riders in Liberia, we hope to be in tune with you, thanks very much for the effort so far. These commercial riders are contributing a hole lot to the transport sector of Africa and they to be recornize for their contribution as nation builders, thank you again.

Philip

S. RAVINATH.

Also, you forgot to mention the competition. It was absolutely ferocious in the little town where I lived, with ten motorcyclists waiting for each customer emerging from the market. As with many African commodities, there seems to be a “known best price” that prevents competition from undermining profits. This is something I don’t really understand about the African marketplace, how it is that community consensus declares a certain “minimum wage”, even when the market is flooded with something. On the other hand, the number of sellers so outnumbers the number of buyers that even with the socially agreed lower bound on prices, it’s likely that the sellers are receiving ever fewer clients, eroding their per-day earnings, while the rent stays steady.

As for helmets, sometimes you see polo helmets. In Indonesia, the government made helmets mandatory, but either didn’t mention the standard, or did not implement enforcement right. With the helmet law, the police have a new way to shake down riders, and the riders respond by finding the cheapest polo helmet they can find and putting that on, in order to avoid paying bribes for not wearing a helmet.