Every commuting person knows that it is tough to get a ride in the metro during rush hours. The agony doubles when it rains. Poor commuters are reduced to urban rats—drenched, standing in cramped waiting sheds, hungry—when they should be home with their loved ones. What a pitiful sight. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
On an almost daily basis, queues on some LRT and MRT stations spill down to the road walkways. Buses are always full. Taxis reveal their true colors. They avoid passengers instead of carrying them, choosy which passengers to take, and even have the gumption to ask for fare on their own terms. The transport network companies are also fully booked, making you wonder if the app you installed is working.
Tired of all these? “Get ready for the new, much-improved game-changing UV Express,” said Rosalino Marable, chairman of Code-X Transport Cooperative and a consultant for DOTr (Department of Transportation).
Using the UV Express fleet throughout the country, Code-X, according to Marable, will provide the “total approach” assistance to operators and drivers, like new vehicle acquisition with no downpayment and low interest rates. It will assist in the preparation of legal documents, and many others.
“We would like to provide commuters with added value while commuting. Like real-time access to news, information, entertainment inside the vehicle, free Wi-Fi that can, hopefully, ease their traffic stress away,” Marable said.
The UV Express is the “vehicle of choice” of young and old professionals, skilled workers, students and dependents of OFWs. People opt to ride the UV Express because of heavy traffic, cost of gasoline and parking. Most of all, they want to free themselves from stress. They can also sleep while going to their respective work or destination, according to Marable.
How it works
If you live in a subdivision, just install a Code-X app to book for a seat. Go to your clubhouse for pickup. A UV Express unit will fetch you and other passengers at designated hours. Not only you save money on tricycle transit, you also don’t get wet when it rains.
A bank will receive all booking transactions, and unlike Uber and Grab, Code-X will not deduct any booking fees. “Up to 20 percent to 25 percent of Uber and Grab fares are retained by them and the remainder is the income of driver/operator. Ang laki ng kaltas [the deduction is big],” Marable says.
“We have over 10,000 members who will be forced to install GPS and Wi-Fi due to the DOTr memorandum circular No. 2017-011,” according to Marable. “It will require all PUVs to install these above-mentioned gadgets. We will offer the gadgets to them free of charge and add a free TV set,” he continued.
Marable thinks the current traffic situation in Metro Manila is the worst nightmare of us all. He says Code-X can help because, “We can monitor the movements of all our members. We can discipline erring members by not permitting them to park in our transport terminals. Our transport association presidents have disciplinary authority over our members. They cannot smoke inside the vehicles, not allowed to wear slippers, wear our green uniform, and must even take a bath every day. The problems are the colorums and other drivers,” Marable proudly said of Code-X.
Helping transport industry
After leaving advertising in 2007, Marable played golf, went fishing and visited his three daughters in America. After six months, he realized that he needed to keep his mind busy. “I wanted to be busy like hell to prevent me from getting old so fast. I wanted to stage a ‘comeback’, so I thought of developing the UV Express as another transport advertising platform,” he relates.
So, together with partners, who are also pioneers in transport-based advertising (MRT and LRT advertising), his company was born. To his surprise, 10 UV Express association presidents, representing some 3,000 members, came to his office and requested if he could represent them in discussions with the DOTr, the Land Transportation Office and, most of all, with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). Marable accepted the challenge.
Soon after, Marable was able to create a loan facility with the Land Bank of the Philippines, preventing a number of people (former OFWs, retired teachers, government employees, who saved money to purchase the phased out Tamaraw FX) to lose their only source of livelihood. To them, operating a PUV was the simplest of business, no inventories, no receivables, and they have money at the end of the day. Some ventured in lending business and operated sari-sari stores. Majority failed due to their inexperience in running even a small business.
Convenience for commuters
Today, Code-X has grown with the following strength: 250 transport terminals and the list is getting longer, 5,000 sari-sari stores in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; 1,000 public markets in the entire country; more than 150,000 transport operators of UV Express, jeepneys, tricycles, school buses and airport taxis; 1,500 locations for small- and medium-size billboards all over the Philippines with 15,000 barangay halls, where people congregate regularly.
To help marketers and advertisers sell their brands in a captive market, Marable also formed a marketing arm, Razorfish, which he calls “not just your ordinary out-of-home company but the King of POPs [point-of-purchase]. We are a company that can literally move your products in the market. [Example: as special distributor of oil products: lubricants, tires, batteries and accessories]. Due to the high cost of advertising in the traditional media, we need to find a more cost-efficient way in waging marketing battles in ‘point-of-purchase’ areas,” Marable added. His Razorfish, he said, will be a big sales booster.
Marable is optimistic about the UV Express as an advertising platform for the following reasons: “The captive audience stay out of home for more than 14 hours. Hence, we can ‘catch the customers on the move’. While TV is still the best medium, the people with buying decision are out of their respective homes from 6 am to about 8 pm. The only ones left at home are the maids and kids below school age,” he emphasized.
Marable is slowly becoming the voice of the voiceless and fought for their plight. He was able to prevent the LTFRB from reducing the UV Express fare from P2 per kilometer to about P1.50 by using his experience as a finance person. Fortunately, he dealt with people who themselves were finance people who understood his reasoning, like higher replacement costs, depreciation and many more.
He, too, fought for the rights, not only of UV Express operators, but also for other PUV sectors. In putting up Code-X, Marable hopes that it will also uplift the image of PUV drivers and operators.
“For example, whenever drivers are asked: ‘What is your work’, the normal reply of people with low esteem is: ‘Driver lang po ako’. We want to gradually change that. We want UV drivers to get the respect they deserve, from traffic enforcers to the riding public,” he shared.
Marable thinks the government should not only come out with various laws and regulations penalizing offenders, but also transform them into responsible and productive citizens. “They shouldn’t see the transportation institutions as ‘gold mine’, where fees and tong [bribes] can easily be gained,” he lamented.
Marable took his Master in Business Administration in Colegio de San Juan de Letran in 1975 and developed his career by attending many seminars and training programs in management, finance, advertising, marketing, public speaking and public relations.
He was formerly president and CEO of Trackworks Advertising and Promotion, 2004-2007; executive vice president of Publicis-AMA, 1999-2003; executive vice president and COO of AMA and DDB Advertising and Marketing Associates, 1964-1999; president and CEO of Queen Frog Print Production Inc., 2012-2013; and president and stockholder of DYMC-Cebu Radio Station/General Santos/Baguio, among others.
Image credits: Ed Davad
1 comment
(issue: CODE-X VAN) With due respect to Mr. Marable, i beg to dis-agree his proposal CODE-X for UV Express. PRIMARY REASONS 1st) UV Express meaning mabilisan, no drop & pick, point to point. 2nd) inconvenience to passengers imagine ihahatid pa ang ibang passengers so ikot-ng-ikot. 3rd) will affect Route Measurement Capacity (RMC) imagine if every morning 40% of passengers going to University Belt & Ermita so most all CODE-X VAN sa University Belt ang route and other parts of Metro Manila kulang naman ng CODE-X VAN. 4th) add TRAFFIC woes, if almost all CODE-X VAN nasa mga Malls or Universities every rush hours to pick their passengers lalaki ang car volume ng area. SECONDARY REASONS A) affected ang existing operators of that particular route once ang volume ng CODE-X VAN every rush hours dumarami. B) Small tricycle operators/jeepneys directly affected coz papsok na sa subdivision ang CODE-X VAN. PROPOSAL: i) some parts or area our Government is the one will operate the mass transportation and other area subsidies to private operators to improve public transportation of that particular area parang MRT & LRT na rin ang dating. sample EDSA only government owned BUSES ang mass transport so controlado ang UNLOADING & LOADING area.