The moratorium on acceptance of new transportation network vehicle service (TNVS) operators is set to be lifted this month, a ranking official of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said.
Aileen Lizada, the agency’s spokesman, said her group will release a memorandum circular that will lift the 2016 directive that stopped the acceptance of new partner-drivers for transport network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Grab.
“This month we will release the memorandum circular for the common base supply,” she said in a mix of Filipino and English.
She explained that the memo will allow the creation of a lone pool of drivers that will have the option whether to stay with their existing TNC or be accredited with another, while their franchises are “generic.”
The idea there, Lizada explained, is that the TNCs can tap that pool to “serve the public easier.”
“This common base—we agreed during our technical working group meeting—will be subject to review every three months because there is such a thing as churning rate,” she said.
She explained that the regulator will put a cap on the number of vehicles that can apply for a franchise under the new scheme.
Lizada declined to disclose it, saying that it will be part of the memo to be released this month, but noted that it will be higher than 40,000 vehicles.
Currently there are less than 20,000 TNVS vehicles registered in the LTFRB, a small fraction of the almost 100,000 TNVS in the Philippines.
“Those that do not have certificates of public conveyance or provisional authorities, they have to apply,” Lizada.
The process of application for these franchises were suspended in July 2016 due to the “overwhelming” number of documents submitted to the regulator for Uber and Grab.
Uber General Manager Laurence Cua said while his group finds this proposal to be somewhat of a headache in the operations of his company, his camp also finds this beneficial to both drivers and riders.
“It makes our job harder because you don’t have exclusivity. But I think it’s the right thing to do. We are not interested in tying people down, but we want to give people choice,” he said in an interview.
Cua noted that his group will provide better working relations with its driver peers, so as to make them more loyal to the company.
“Another is the driver safety platform, and we put a lot of premium for that,” he said.
Uber Philippines launched on Monday a new safety feature that allows drivers to know the basic information of their passengers.
Newly registered passengers are now required to link their personal Facebook accounts to the Uber accounts, as this could help deter crimes that require transportation of goods and people.
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Content of this news article isn’t quite clear.
Does this also mean that Uber and Grab can start accepting new vehicles again this year, when the memo has been released?