A party-list lawmaker on Monday revealed that Grab Philippines has recently implemented a new minimum fare without the appropriate authorization of the Land Transportation and Regulatory Board.
“Without any public hearing, Grab Philippines again unilaterally imposed a new illegal fare condition,” Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said.
“Previously, during the April 17 LTFRB hearing, Grab Philippines denied to the Board that they imposed a P80 minimum fare. Now, no less than the Grab App publicly declares that the company charges the same minimum fare. This brazen act shows not only disrespect to the regulators, but proof that Grab Philippines has no intention to follow Philippine laws,” Nograles added.
The lawmaker advised Grab that instead of spending so much money on propaganda to create the illusion that it is conducting its business fairly and squarely, it should just abide by the rules set by the LTFRB to avoid any problems such as hefty fines and possible revocation of its franchise to operate a TNVS.
“Grab would not have a problem if they only follow the law. If they continue to disregard the authority of the LTFRB, then they don’t have any legal standing to do business in the land transport sector,” he said.
Nograles earlier exposed Grab’s illegal P2 per minute extra charge on their fares and its additional P40 base fare, both of which were initially denied by Grab management.
Based on its fare matrix, Grab has admitted that it is charging P80 as minimum fare (base fare) instead of P40, which is the approved rate of the LTFRB, the sole regulator of the country’s public transport sector.
“Who is lying now? Earlier Grab denied that they are charging P2 per minute extra charge on their fares. When we showed them their own breakdown, they suddenly try to divert the issue by claiming that they just wanted to help their driver partners.” Nograles said.
“And when we exposed their jacked up minimum fare, Bryan Cu was again denying but it turns out that they have been charging P80 instead of P40 for a very long time now. That’s high-tech swindling and I guess LTFRB should really allow this company to continue defrauding the riding public,” Nograles added.
Grab’s overpriced minimum base fare was discovered by Nograles upon conducting his own experiments which showed that even if you have the same pick-up point and destination, the minimum charge would be P80 instead of P40.
Based on the Dec. 27, 2016 Order of the LTFRB, Grab is only allowed to charge P40 base fare, P10-P14 per kilometer, and a surge of up to 2x only on the per kilometer charges. This minimum fare is applied not only on Transport Network Vehicles Service providers but also on all regular taxi services.
Nograles said that under the approved fare structure, if a rider takes a 500 meter ride at two times surge rate, the maximum charge should only be P58 [P40 + (P14 x2)].
But without authority from LTFRB and without any prior public consent, Grab has placed its minimum fare at P80.
“This is a usurpation of the powers of the LTFRB and this is a violation of our existing laws. Just because they now have a virtual monopoly of our TNVS sector, they can now violate our laws by setting their own fare rates?” Nograles said.