Motorcycle ride-hailing platform Angkas on Sunday accused the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) of corruption and urged it to reconsider new regulations on its business.
“This is not regulation, it’s corruption,” said George Royeca, chief transport advocate of Angkas, about new rules that reduce its allotment of drivers in favor of two new players.
In a letter to the LTFRB’s motorcycle taxi technical working group, Angkas challenged six new provisions in the rules governing motorcycle taxi pilots.
READ: 17,000 riders face job loss; Angkas fumes
These include a cap of 30,000 bikers for Metro Manila and 9,000 for Metro Cebu, and reducing Angkas’s allotment by 17,000 in favor of newcomers JoyRide and Move It.
Angkas currently has 27,000 bikers serving about 30,000 riders a day.
Royeca said riders who could not get a ride from Angkas might switch back to illegal habal-habal services, which are unregulated.
“This is exactly what happened when Angkas suspended operations the last two times. Passengers who cannot book Angkas might opt to ride the habal-habal,” he said.
This was risky, since habal-habal are not monitored by the government and are not covered by any insurance.
He also raised safety issues about the operation of two “untested” players, JoyRide and Move It.
“Joy Ride claims to already have 7,000 bikers fully accredited to operate after only three months in operation. While this does not mean they are less safe, the technical working group must be more cautious, given these seemingly lower standards,” he added.
Royeca said Angkas was able to train 117,000 drivers in three years.
He also questioned the LTFRB’s omission of the motorcycle taxi’s proposal to require participating companies to have dedicated emergency response teams with proper qualifications.
“If safety is the highest priority, then prudence necessitates more bikers proportionally be allowed to operate with the one with a track record,” Royeca said.
“Other plays should be allowed, but must ramp up at a more steady pace until they can properly prove both their operational teams and app platforms are truly functional at scale,” he added.
He said any new provider whose track record is lower than a 99.997 percent safety record should carry a higher financial burden.
Angkas said his company took three years to learn how to manage 27,000 bikers, yet the new players are expected to handle 10,000 in three months.
”While Angkas has trained 117,000 in three years, it has failed over 70 percent of that to ensure very high and stringent standards resulting in only 27,000 remaining bikers to date,” Royeca said.
He said the new regulations allotting 10,000 drivers to each company would mean 17,000 Angkas bikers will lose their livelihoods.
“Even if these bikers transfer to the two new players, neither of those have access to over 3 million app downloads to ensure continuous demand for their services,” Royeca said.
Senator Imee Marcos said the Department of Transportation was putting commuters in danger and thousands of motorcycle drivers out of work with its new regulations that were imposed without proper consultation or debate.
Marcos said the department had conducted a series of closed-door meetings since November, and shut out the active participation of members of the Senate, House of Representatives, Philippine National Police, Metro Manila Development Authority, motorbike ride-hailing companies, and commuter associations.
The rules were approved only by an exclusive technical working group headed by retired police general
Antonio Gardiola Jr., with representatives from the department and its line agencies, including the LTFRB and Land Transportation Office. – With Macon Ramos-Araneta
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