Minimum Age to Drive a Hire Tuk: Govt Floated 40, Unions Counter With 23

A Deputy Minister said in August that the government was looking at raising the minimum age for three-wheeler passenger drivers to 40, mainly to stop school leavers from jumping straight into a tuk instead of building a trade or career. The Cabinet spokesman later said no such decision had actually been taken, but the three-wheeler unions didn't wait around — they've pushed their own number, asking for the new passenger-tuk rules to set the floor at 23, not 40. The case for a higher bar: a tuk full of fare-paying passengers isn't a learner's vehicle, and a bit more life experience on the road could mean fewer reckless 18-year-olds chasing trips. The case against: thousands of people in their early twenties already depend on tuk driving as their only income, and locking them out for another fifteen-plus years just pushes them into something worse, or nothing at all. If you drive a hire tuk, or you're a regular passenger, what age would you actually trust behind the wheel — and is age even the right thing to be regulating here? වයස සීමාවද වඩා වැදගත්, නැත්තන් පළපුරුද්දද?