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| Ride Sharing Getting Worse in PH; Who's to Blame?! |
Two years ago, due to the nature of my work, I learned to embrace this ride-hailing apps – particularly Grab and Uber. I became dependent to them as they worked as my escape against terrible traffic. I used to love it until it started to experience some difficulties with LTFRB. I’m not saying that it was the government’s fault, however, I just felt like they became too much that they didn’t even realize that they slowly killing the TNVS industry, when it was supposed to be their solution.
Looking back, I can still remember when I received an automated email from Uber. It was when LTFRB banned its operation for a month in the country. Their suspension was then lifted after paying Php489-million.
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| Uber Philippines Email to its Users |
Just when we thought that everything would be normal again. Uber suddenly announced its exit in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. With that, the riding public and its partners were left alone. Good thing, there’s still Grab who would pick up the mess but, of course, this isn’t easy. And up until now, they are still haunted by this incident.
Gone are the days when using ride-hailing app was one of the smartest solutions to deal with traffic. Personally, sometimes, I felt frustrated so I just blame Grab and its “picky” drivers for making me wait longer than usual in booking a ride. And it's not only me who throw the pressure and stress on Grab, we are thousands of users who used to enjoy their service. On Facebook, you can even find numbers of rants from other netizens.
However, this was already explained by Grab. It isn’t their fault, and believe us, they’re trying to fix this. Fortunately, it's a relief that some users have been already enlightened about the real problem.
See Also: Grab Explains Why It Takes so Long to Book a Ride
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| Facebook Post about Grab and LTRFB |
Right now, they are in need of more cars to serve the riding public. In fact, it was revealed that there were only 35,000 cars to meet about 600,000 daily passenger booking requests. Considering that about 20% of commuters were relying on ride sharing apps like Grab, supply is sure to be a major concern.
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| Facebook Discussion Re: Grab and LTFRB |
The Philippines’ ride hailing service now has 19% lesser cars to serve the public. Grab explained before that when it acquired Uber, the two companies has 43,000 cars at the most. However, it is now down to 35,000 vehicles as only 11,000 active Uber cars jumped to Grab from 19,000 operating partners.
What’s the reason behind this? Well, 6,000 active Uber vehicles were not part of LTFRB’s accredited TNVS drivers. With that, Grab couldn’t accept them.
Related: Filipino-owned HYPE Transport Systems Set to Rival Grab; Offers Php3,000 Sign-up Bonus!
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| Only 35,000 cars to serve 600,000 bookings! |
See? It’s not only us who suffer. Driver’s welfare could no longer support their needs as well. In addition, LTFRB even suspended the Php2 per minute charge. This pushes them to leave this industry and find a better job. With that being said, the numbers of online drivers have dropped by 6% from April to July 2018.
The funny thing, as well, when you booked a ride today, you still have to wait for a long time before it arrives. To be exact, average pick-up time has increased this July to 8 minutes, and sadly, it’s even worse during rush hours.
So, if you’re a Grab user like me, let’s try to be more understanding and continue to hope that LTFRB will do something about this. Grab already asked them to accept the hanging 6,000 drivers who were not part of their master list as it can really help.
Also Read: Ride-Hailing Startup 'Arcade City' Set to Launch in PH on April 16; LTFRB Says No
Meanwhile, LTFRB recently announced that the application for TNVS will be resumed for those who are not included in their master list starting August 24. In addition, they revealed that it will launch another crackdown against unauthorized ride-sharing vehicles beginning September 1.
However, for Grab, the transport regulatory board must also clean up the list by removing the inactive drivers. The company also believed that the LTFRB must review the status quo of the TNVS industry in the Philippines, most especially its demand and supply situation. Moreover, it is just right to remind LTFRB to do its position that it will review every after three months to see if the supply cap must be increased.
After all, is Grab really getting worse? Or, is it LTRFB who needs to start seeing the bigger picture? What do you think? Share your thoughts with us!
