Two-wheel trends

Ang lakas po ng benta ng motor (motorcycle sales are growing strongly),” remarked my driver the other day, as I told him I was about to speak before officers of a motorcycle trading company. “At nagsusulputan po ang pagawaan ng motor (and motorcycle repair shops are sprouting all over),” he added.

He should know; he and his family have depended on a motorcycle for mobility for many years. I used to depend on one myself back in my college days at the sprawling University of the Philippines campus in Los Baños, Laguna, and had to drive it some 15 kilometers to the next town of Calamba to have repairs done. Now it seems that you’re never more than a couple of kilometers away from a motorcycle repair shop. They have become so ubiquitous that “maintenance and repair of motorcycles” is actually distinctly specified in the summary tables in the GDP accounts, along with trade.

Being the most easily accessible and affordable of motor vehicles, motorcycles actually make up the bulk (18.8 million, or 71 percent) of the 26.33 million motor vehicles registered by the Land Transportation Office (LTO), based on data released early this year. That means that there’s about one motorcycle for every five Filipinos. Meanwhile, utility vehicles account for 15 percent, 8 percent are cars, 3 percent are sports utility vehicles and 3 percent are trucks.

Interestingly, it appears that two in every three motorcycle owners do not bother to keep their vehicle’s registration current, as the LTO reports that 12.3 million of those motorcycles in their database have delinquent registration. I discovered that my driver had not been renewing his motorbike’s registration for years, when he asked to borrow money to be able to do it, as he apparently had to pay already sizable accumulated penalties in doing so.

Motorcycle sales have indeed been zooming in this country, which has been described to have the fastest-growing motorcycle market in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. LTO data reported that 1,408,835 brand-new motorcycles were registered in 2015, which grew to 1,572,322 in 2016, and on to a whopping 2,006,954 in 2017, a 27.6-percent growth from 2016. This had more than doubled the 2015-2016 growth rate of 11.6 percent. Given increasingly intolerable traffic congestion in many of our towns and cities, it’s not surprising how an ever-growing number of people have taken to riding motorcycles to be able to move around more quickly, despite hazards and all.

Modern-day motorcycle taxis, known locally as habal-habal (from the Visayan term for the reproductive act of animals, reflecting the position of the driver and passenger seated closely in tandem), now operate under smartphone app-based platforms a la Uber or Grab, the most visible one being Angkas. Motorcycles have also become an important mode of delivery for small parcels and food, and similar app-based platforms are now available for sending packages within reachable distances. With the rapid growth in e-commerce via platforms like Lazada and Shopee, these motorcycle delivery services like Lex PH and Lalamove have been an additional substantial source of growth in motorcycle sales.

In the countryside, motorcycles with or without sidecars are the common and most accessible mode of mobility, especially in remote upland or coastal areas where roads are rugged or nonexistent. The resourcefulness of rural folk—and the skill of motorcycle drivers—in maximizing the number of passengers that can be loaded on one motorcycle is nothing short of amazing. Up to 10 passengers can be taken on a single motorcycle fitted with wooden planks. It’s known as “skylab” when the planks are fitted laterally, achieving a configuration not unlike that of the space station it was named after.

But it’s not just those in lower-income groups pushing up motorcycle sales. Many have been driven to leave their cars at home in favor of the more agile two-wheelers, while big-bike hobbyists have been pushing up sales of higher-end brands as well.

I must admit to having achieved a new level of respect for motorcycle riders on the road— who I used to mostly see as a nuisance—since I returned to becoming one myself.