Govt told to come up with new rules in selecting motorcycle taxi players

WHILE commuter group Lawyers for Commuter Safety and Protection (LCSP) favors competition, its spokesman believes that certain parameters must be set to ensure that new players will not put to waste the budding two-wheel ride-hailing industry.

Ariel Inton, who speaks for the commuter group, said introducing competition will be beneficial to consumers, but noted that the government has to be strict in determining the most viable competitor to Angkas, the only motorcycle taxi app in the country.

“It is important but we have to know the legal parameters of the competition. There should be real competition,” he said.

He said the parameters in choosing new players should be the same as when Angkas was allowed to provisionally operate under the Motorcycle Taxi Pilot Implementation Program. These include: training, insurance, fares, speed limits, hygiene, gender sensitivity, and other standards on safety and passenger convenience.

On Tuesday, the government body tasked to review the feasibility of motorcycle taxis as a mode of public transportation considered to extend the six-month trial period of the pilot program to allow new players to participate in the study.

Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Member Antonio B. Gardiola Jr. has said the extension will give a wider perspective on the program which, by schedule, is subject to termination on December 26.

So far, the Department of Transportation has heard proposals from six motorcycle taxi companies, namely, Citimuber, JoyRide, MoveIt, EsetGo, Sakay and VroomGo, to participate in the pilot program.

This move, according to Inton, was not consulted with the “original members” of the technical working group for the study. Inton was part of it.

“Since the start of the pilot run, I have never been invited to meetings and discussions, and now I heard that they have decided on something critical, which is not only irregular, but rather suspicious and unacceptable,” he said.

Commuter group Komyut Spokesman Toix Cerna added that the government is not transparent in the initial findings of the study.

“Our task was also to monitor and assess the results of the pilot so that we are informed of what to recommend for the legislative measures pending in Congress,” Cerna said.

For policy advocate group Move Metro Manila Spokesman

Raymond Gascon in principle said his group agrees to the need for the motorcycle taxi safety protocols to be extended to and applied to other motorcycle taxi service providers.

“Competition is good and should be a welcome development. We are just concerned with the process through which this decision was made without us having been call into a meeting at all,” he said.

Earlier, Inton’s group filed for an injunction order against five motorcycle taxi apps—We Move Things Philippines Inc. (JoyRide), Habal Rides Corp., i-Sabay, SampaDala Corp. and Trans-Serve Corp. —that it called “illegal” as they had not been recognized and authorized by the transport regulator.

Should the transportation agency approves the filings of companies that were sued by LCSP, Inton said his group might “drop the case” against them.