TRAFFIC congestion has become the new normal for the people living and working in Metro Manila.
On average, someone traveling within Metro Manila on a daily basis spends at least 16 days and loses roughly P100,000 in economic opportunities per year stuck in bottlenecks, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group.
From a macro perspective, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) pegs Philippine productivity losses on traffic at P3.5 billion per day in Metro Manila alone, and another P1 billion in the neighboring cities of the metropolis.
Holiday traffic has turned into a regular day-to-day struggle for everyone in the city that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has called Metro Manila the most congested developing city in Asia, bereft of efficient mass transit systems and plagued by the lack of reliable transport modes.
While the government is trying to move mountains by building new roads, new rails and new bridges, there has emerged a need for a reliable and safe way of transporting people from one point to another in the most efficient manner.
Then comes Angkas
Ride-hailing app Angkas then entered the scene. Three years ago, Angeline Tham, an ex-investment banker and the former head of the two-wheel business of Grab Philippines, and husband George Royeca founded Angkas. Their goal was to increase mobility in the Philippines through motorbikes.
“It is not entirely an invention. There’s already a lot of motorcycle taxis in Vietnam and Thailand, and in Metro Manila, where traffic congestion is a daily phenomenon, it just makes a lot of sense for us to use smaller, more agile vehicles that navigate congested areas,” Royeca said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
He explained that Angkas, which in the vernacular pertains to sharing a ride, aims to professionalize the habal-habal service that has been offered in the provinces—and some outskirts of Metro Manila—for as long as four decades now. Through upfront pricing, training, and insurance coverage, each Angkas ride is similar to a Grab ride; only that one rides a motorcycle.
“More than the economic impact of the congestion, we also saw its social impact. A lot of the decisions that we make now are because of traffic congestion—we become limited with our choices for love, school, and even work. We realized that all our decisions are dependent on traffic. We are imprisoned by congestion,” Royeca said.
However, Angkas, whose app has been downloaded by more than a million Filipinos today, is now one of the most demanded alternative transport services in Metro Manila. This is due to its value proposition of cheap, safe and quick rides.
“We are basically in a sunshine industry. We came into ride hailing at the right time and at the right place,” Royeca said.
‘Fighting for our lives’
The journey of Angkas to being one of the most popular on-demand transport apps in the Philippines today was not at all smooth. It was marred with several legal tussles that caused its death not once, but twice.
In the Philippines, motorcycles are not considered by law as a commercial transport mode, and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) initially saw it fit to order the service to close shop. Even the Supreme Court ruled that its services lacked legal backing.
“We’ve only existed for three years, and half our lives, we were fighting to maintain our services. It was a big roller-coaster ride,” Royeca said.
Today, Angkas operates in a gray area, after public clamor became more apparent when traffic congestion in Metro Manila was coupled by the frequent incidents in the various mass transit systems in the metropolis.
It is now pilot testing the motorcycle taxi service in the Philippines for six months, a period when Angkas hopes that lawmakers will push for the creation of the first piece of legislation that will legalize and regulate the service.
“We’re in a very critical moment in the history of the Philippine transport industry. The pilot is really in aid of legislation, and we are waiting for a Senate hearing schedule, where we will present our initial findings. At least we can help formulate necessary laws to regulate motorcycle taxis,” Royeca said.
Villafuerte bill
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte of the Second District of Camarines Sur, introduced House Bill 4652, which aims to allow and regulate the use of motorcycles as public-utility vehicles. This amends the Land Transportation and Traffic Code Law, which was passed in 1964.
Royeca said his group understands the apprehension over motorcycle taxis, given that 53 percent of all vehicular deaths in the Philippines are motorcycle related.
“We realized that when you’re doing public service, it shouldn’t be easy. So the government has all the right to be skeptical. So we explained what we’re trying to do…and the government saw that Angkas was a testament to what we could achieve as partners with the government,” he said.
‘Shut down if not safe’
One of the key ingredients on how Angkas was able to persuade the government into creating a test run for motorcycle taxis is its safety record.
For the three years that it has been operating in the Philippines, Angkas only figured int one accident, which slightly dipped its rating to 99.997 percent.
“We are even safer than condoms, which offer a 98-percent safety rating,” Royeca said. “Safety is core to us. If we are not safe, then we’ll shut down the business period.”
To achieve this level of safety, Angkas riders undergo a very stringent and rigid training module. It is so intense that out of 110,000 applicants, only 27,000 passed the training exams.
“Roughly 70 percent of the applicants failed our exams, but we encourage them to undergo the retraining, which is also free, until such time that they are up to our standards,” Royeca added. “If we just wanted to make money, we would have 110,000 riders by now.”
Other safety nets that Angkas has put in place are a feedback mechanism, a 24/7 call-center hot line, and insurance coverage for both the passenger and the biker.
But safety, he noted, is not entirely dependent on the rider alone. The passenger, as a co-rider, also has responsibilities to make the ride as safe as possible.
“We launched a passenger safety campaign that educates our passengers on their responsibilities as co-riders. We also have passenger safety cards—similar to those in airplanes—for safety reminders,” Royeca said.
Despite this, Royeca believes there are still more mechanisms in order to make each Angkas ride much safer than it is today.
“There’s a lot of ways for us to improve safety. We need better roads, infrastructure and proper motorcycle lanes—things like that really make motorcycle riding safe,” he said.
Likewise, safety is also a mindset issue for Filipinos.
“We need to have a mindset change because the Filipino mindset for motorcycle is largely based on tricycles. So we really have to push proper education to change this,” Royeca said.
Star on the rise
Another reason the government was pushed to consider motorcycle taxis as a transport mode is its popularity. The service is so in demand that Royeca said the 27,000-strong Angkas riders are unable to serve the demand.
Metro Manila needs to increase its motorcycle taxi service by as much as 73 percent to meet the current demand for the service. Demand for the service is largely based on the worsening traffic buildups along the roads of Metro Manila, add to that the lack of efficient mass transport systems.
Royeca said Metro Manila alone needs 100,000 motorcycle taxis to meet the current demand.
“The popularity of Angkas is based on congestion,” he said.
The main value proposition of Angkas, Royeca noted, is its ability to give people time.
“With our service, people get to spend time with their families. Angkas drivers also get to become entrepreneurs. We really want to uplift people’s lives. For the longest time, the poorer sectors of the society have fewer transport options for them, and for us, mobility should be inclusive. So it’s not just about Angkas; it’s about giving options for the poor as well,” he added.
Sustainable expansion
Royeca is “optimistic” that a law that allows and regulates commercial motorcycle transport services will be passed within the year. When passed, this may trigger Angkas to go on expansion mode and introduce the service to other cities in the country.
“The Philippines is a lot of work, and congestion is not exclusive to Metro Manila,” he said. “Congestion is a symptom of every progressive system.”
Angkas could expand to as many as 30 cities that already reflect the congested state of the urban metropolis that is home to the Philippine capital. These are cities in the provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Pampanga, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao, among others.
“There are 18 million motorcycles in the country, making us a motorcycle economy. And with the advent of digital platforms, it’s just going to grow more,” he said.
Fueling this “motorcycle economy” are the demand for parcel and logistics services from incumbent online shopping giants Lazada and Shopee, as well as the growing demand for food delivery, and the shipping requirements of online social sellers.
Royeca noted that Angkas, which also offers parcel delivery services, the potential to help people succeed in life, especially those that are from the lower end of the economic spectrum.
“A survey conducted by the Social Weather Station in 2018 showed that 1 out of 3 Filipino families own a motorcycle, 51 percent of that is dependent on their motorcycles for livelihood, and 99 percent are from low-income family households. It’s a financial epicenter,” he added.
Royeca explained that operating an Angkas service is “very sustainable” for bikers, since maintenance is cheap, which means that a rider can earn more than a car driver.
On a good day, a full-time Angkas driver may rake in up to P1,500 in earnings from bringing passengers from point A to B, while a part-time biker may earn as much as P800 per day by driving with Angkas.
This means that a rider that goes around Metro Manila for a full day’s work earns more than double than a salaryman in the metropolis, whose minimum wage is at P537 per day.
Not ‘the’ solution
But while all these are all good and praiseworthy for Angkas, Royeca noted that the Philippines really needs to develop more mass-transit options to improve the quality of life of Filipinos.
“Public mass transit is still the best, and we’re all for that, but it takes time and a lot of money to build. For now, there’s so much work for Angkas to take,” he said.
Royeca added that aside from helping ferry Filipinos from one point to another, Angkas is helping in the government’s fight against congestion—especially now that the Philippines is trying to leapfrog into the future by building more transport facilities across the country.
“We are just one part of the solution,” he said. “We want to bring back the quality of life to Filipinos—take back their freedom from congestion.”
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza