A ranking Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board official is pushing for a system wherein taxi drivers will receive a fixed salary instead of the current boundary scheme.
LTFRB board member Aileen Lizada said that in the current system, drivers spend several hours on the road and this coul take a toll on the driver’s health.
“Kasi kung if you are on the road for so many hours, apektado ang driving skills mo. Antok ka, baka mainit pa ang ulo mo. Apektado din ‘yung rider mo. Baka mag-away pa kayo.”
Lizada cited an example operators in Davao City, who had increased their daily rent to P250 following a meeting with the taxi drivers on Friday.
The taxi operators in Davao City said they increased the rent to comply with the government’s public utility vehicle modernization program.
“In this case, we look into the welfare of the drivers. At ang mga operator, naiintindihan namin kayo. You have to have income. But let’s make it decent,” she said.
Lizada said that under Department Order No. 2017-011 of the Department of Transportation, PUV drivers shall be on fixed salary and benefits with no compensation linked to ridership.
According to the LTFRB, taxi units must now be equipped with GPS and dashcam.
But Lizada warned taxi drivers not to carry the burden of the cost in modernizing the units.
In a related development, transportation network vehicle services drivers has urged the to lift the suspension of the P2-per-minute travel charge being imposed by ridesharing firm Grab to its riders.
In a press conference held in Quezon City, the drivers said the suspension order will adversely affect their livelihood as the travel duration charge provides sustainable income amid higher oil prices.
TNVS operator Earl Licera said many drivers have lost their jobs since the P2-per-minute charge was suspended by the LTFRB.
“Nakikiusap po kami sa LTFRB na sumusunod naman po kami sa inyo, sana ay pakinggan ninyo rin po kami. (We are asking LTFRB that we listen to you and that hoping you’d listen to us as well),” Licera said.
Grab has recently filed its motion for reconsideration before the LTFRB asking that it lift its suspension on the travel duration rate.
The company has maintained that the travel duration rate is legal and in accordance with a 2015 order of the Department of Transportation that allows transportation network companies (TNCs) to set their own fare rates.
Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) Partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles accused Grab of illegally charging P2 per minute for their rides, on top of its flagdown rate of P40 and charging P10 to P14 per kilometer. He said Grab should refund around P1.8 billion to its customers because of the alleged overcharging.
For his part, Vhinz Fernando of Philippine Solid Grabbers said that masking the destination of passengers will compromise their safety.
“Our families at home are expecting our safety as we drive back and forth,” Fernando said.
Grab has announced that its drivers will no longer see passenger destinations starting this Friday which will lead to reducing the incidents of cancelled booked trips. This will be initially rolled out to 25 percent of Grab drivers with historically low acceptance rate.
The firm has also launched an auto-accept feature that will automatically allocate trips to drivers allowing a more seamless experience in continuously accepting passenger requests.
Meanwhile, ATC Transport and Services Chairperson Josephine Llavore urged Congress to fast-track the passage of a Transportation Network Company (TNC) bill that would standardize the guidelines for the operations of ride-hailing services.
She also appealed for understanding on the issues of TNVS drivers and said that these should be addressed.
But some Grab drivers do not approve of the new feature that hides the destination of passengers, a new Grab schme which started on Friday.
“Preliminary feedback is merong mga drivers na hindi masaya. Kasi nakasanayan na nila na nakikita ‘yung destination,” Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu said in a radio interview.
The destination-masking feature, which was designed to respond to the issues of cancellations following a flurry of complaints from the riding public, affects 25 percent of Grab’s driver fleet.
“With any change, takes a bit of time. We need to continue educating our partners that they need to be able to think about the system benefits as a whole,” Cu said.
“At hindi lang po ‘yung sarili nilang experience. Because whatever they do in the platform, they bring the name of Grab and with fellow drivers with them.”
The most affected drivers, according to Cu, are those with low acceptance rates who had produced some 70 percent or at least 50,000 ignored bookings.
Cu said Grab responds to 600,000 booking requests daily.
But with the new feature, Cu expects erring drivers to change their ways.
“We want to retrain them, to behave like the 75 percent na maayos naman po ang kanilang pagserbisyo,” he said.
But Cu said the destination-masking feature is effective only during the day and will be suspended from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. for safetry reasons.
“We’re giving them (drivers) the ability to choose, so to speak, during these times where their safety is of utmost concern,” he said.
Previously, Grab drivers can see a passenger’s destination with the corresponding price and only have 20 seconds to decide whether to accept or reject the booking.