GOVERNMENT regulation and policy on technology-based transportation applications are too old-fashioned that it has put a dent on the overall supply and demand mix in the sector, affecting hundreds of thousands of riders on a weekly basis.
Uber Philippines General Manager Laurence Cua said his group is having a hard time in supplying the “ever-increasing demand” for ride-sharing services in the country, as the government moved to put a stop on the activation of new drivers due to traffic congestion.
At least on Uber’s platform, there were about 14,000 ride requests unfulfilled starting in the fourth quarter of 2016. This has ballooned to roughly 200,000 unfulfilled requests as of last month, data from Uber showed.
Simply put, there are 200,000 Filipinos trying to book an Uber but can’t get one, hence, resulting to two things: private-car owners using their vehicles, or commuters using other modes of transportation.
“There is a widening gap between demand and supply, and we expect this to grow bigger if we don’t do something about it. We are very worried that we are getting backwards instead of forward,” Cua said.
Currently, there are about a million active Uber users in the Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. It has about 66,000 transportation network vehicle service (TNVS) or partners in the system, but only 30,000 are active. To make things more complicated, 60 percent of these 30,000 active drivers are operating part-time.
The company encourages its driver partners to work only at periods most comfortable to them. This, according to Cua, is what separates transportation network companies (TNCs), like Uber, from metered taxis.
Unfortunately, regulations and policies pertaining to such services are based on old taxi orders that, Cua said, is not fit for ride-sharing companies.
“The interest thing is our regulations are admittedly built from a traditional perspective. It requires 16 documents and three months to process,” he added.
For her part, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Spokesman Aileen Lizada said her group is only executing existing regulations, and doing so legally.
“We are implementing only what is already existing—that is why we have technical working-group meetings to understand TNCs better,” she told the BusinessMirror.
Last year the regulator decided to suspend the application of new franchises of partner drivers of both Uber and competitor Grab.
But this did not stop the two from activating more drivers, leading to the regulator to slapping them with P5-million fines each. The government also moved to stop the two companies from getting more drivers, and has decided to go after those without valid franchises.
This, however, was temporarily stopped due to a motion filed by the two companies, giving drivers breathing room to continue operating even without certificates of public conveyance.
Lizada said the ongoing meetings with the two companies will help in threshing out how the regulator should respond to technology-based transport apps, and how these can help in moving people around more efficiently.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes