THE Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has approved a P10 increase in the flag-down rates of taxis in Metro Manila and other provinces, except in the Cordillera Administrative Region where the increase would be P5.
The order brings back the flag-down rate to P40 where it used to be P30 after a rollback in 2015.
Since 2015, however, despite the rollback, passengers have been paying P40 anyway—cab drivers express disgust when passengers are aware they must subtract P10 from the total fare, or lie outright when they say the rollback does not apply anymore.
Unfortunately these are not the only offenses cab drivers are notorious for committing. We understand they are under pressure to earn money on top of the boundaries they are supposed to turn over to their operators, but even that is not an excuse for their infractions. Among these—refusing to convey passengers, imposing mark-up rates, behaving in a boorish manner, using uncouth language and not maintaining vehicles.
Small wonder then that those who can afford to pay a few extra pesos have been taking, instead, transport network vehicles such as Uber and Grab. But in an administrative spat earlier this year the LTFRB suspended Uber and only allowed its operation after it paid P190 million in fines.
This approval of taxis’ fare increase is conditional, according to the LTFRB. Taxi drivers and operators must participate in a modernization program that requires cabs to have free Wi-Fi, a CCTV that records the past 24 hours and a camera that could record, at least, 24 hours.
All these are good on paper—this is how an efficient, quality-conscious transport service provider should be, in the first place, operating beyond the basic requirements of good manners and good hygiene, besides.
Operators are not allowed to increase their boundary requirements so any additional cash taxi drivers would collect would go to their own pockets. It is hoped this will lessen the temptation of overcharging passengers.
It is perplexing, however, how passengers who are already willing to pay bigger amounts for TNVs before the increase would now even prefer taxis over their superior rides.
The reception of TNVs says a lot about the lack of options commuters seem to feel in their daily routines. They are willing to pay higher for better service—increasing taxi fares without a corresponding change in how drivers treat their passengers will make them even more irrelevant, and despised.
The derision also extends to operators who forget their business partakes of a public-service nature, and to the LTFRB, which fails spectacularly at protecting and empowering the people.