After commuters got the bad news that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) ordered the reinstatement of the P40 flagdown rate for taxis, they received yet another whammy with a proposal by Cebu’s transport groups that they be allowed to implement price surges in their fare rates.
The proposal was floated by the Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multipurpose Cooperative (Citrasco) and the Basak Lapu-Lapu City Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (Balacjoda) under the National Confederation of Transportworkers Union (NCTU)–Visayas on the grounds that they supposedly incur heavy losses during traffic congestion.
In defending their proposal for a P1.50 fare increase for peak hours, which Citrasco chairman Benjamin Yu said would be pegged at 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the transport groups cited increased fuel consumption during traffic congestion as the reason for the price surge increase.
Commuters in Lapu-Lapu City have it worse as Balacjoda is demanding a P1.50 fare rate increase on top of the P1.50 price surge rate to cover the costs incurred due to the rising fuel prices around the world and traffic congestion.
Their proposal is nothing new. They basically copied the price surge fare scheme from private vehicle owners operating under Uber and Grab, two transport network services that are strongly competing against taxi operators and passenger jeepney operators.
These two transport groups must have figured out that if they cannot beat those drivers operating under Uber and Grab Car/Taxi, then they might as well join them and see for themselves who between them would the commuting public patronize.
Yu admitted that there is no concrete study on their part to determine what the peak hours are but then it only takes a seasoned eye to know that the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. hours are those schedules when students and employees go to and leave schools and offices.
By implementing a price surge scheme, these transport groups figured that it would force commuters to leave early from home, say 4 to 5 a.m., to avoid traffic and pay more to passenger jeepneys whose drivers would only be too happy to round them up like cattle in the wee hours of the morning.
But what about those working overtime? Too bad for them since they would have to pay extra for those long hours when they should have been at home early.
If the passenger jeepney drivers want to force the riding public to choose between them and the Uber and Grab Car/Taxi operators, then they may regret doing that.
What this proposal means is that passenger jeepney operators and drivers are placing the onus of the burden of easing the traffic congestion on the commuters and not accepting responsibility for their part in helping resolve the traffic problem by following traffic rules.
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