Habal-habal rides soon on Uber and Grab?

PEOPLE in Cebu City may soon be able to hail motorcycles-for-hire or habal-habal drivers through their cellular phones.

Both Grab and Uber have already started presenting their proposals to Cebu City officials and habal-habal drivers’ organizations in the city in order to implement the new transport scheme.

“It has been the advocacy of Mayor (Tomas Osmeña) to support and promote the habal-habal drivers. We’ve been working on that for the past six months. We are trying to level up the operation of habal-habal drivers by bringing in an application on motorcycle operations,” said Arnel Tancinco, the mayor’s executive assistant assigned to look into the habal-habal industry in the city.

Yesterday morning, Tancinco met with representatives of the habal-habal group “Cebu City Riders” in City Hall to initially talk about the proposals.

He said that starting next week, they will schedule two days per week in order to talk with different habal-habal organizations all over the city until July.

Tancinco said they will introduce the new platforms offered by Grab and Uber wherein the drivers will have to own a smartphone as this will be the means for them to be booked by a customer.

On the other hand, the interested passengers will have to also use the mobile application of either Uber or Grab to key in their pick-up point and their drop-off point. The application will also determine the exact fare for the ride.

Tancinco said both Grab and Uber are yet to finalize their fare matrix for the habal-habal.

He added that while they will be talking with habal-habal groups, the decision on whether or not they will adopt these proposals will be voluntary on the part of the drivers.

Delfin Adolfo of the Cebu City Riders welcomed the proposal. He said they will be relaying this to their members.

“We don’t have a problem with this. It’s good. But it will depend on the drivers if they want it. We will just introduce it to them, we will help guide them,” he told reporters yesterday after their meeting with Tancinco.

Adolfo’s group has over 3,000 members in 49 different barangays in both the north and south districts of Cebu City.

Adolfo said the process might also be an opportunity for them to cleanse the ranks of habal-habal groups.

“This is good because all those that will join will be identified as decent people. We will have all of their credentials. We will be able to control them if ever there are untoward incidents,” he said in Cebuano.

He noted that Grab and Uber have been registering basic personal information of all their partner drivers, including their pictures, full names and contact numbers.

While their information dissemination is ongoing, Tancinco said he and Mayor Osmeña will be meeting with some city councilors as to how the city will regulate this transportation scheme once it is implemented.

This may be in the form of a council approval or even an ordinance that would require registration of habal-habal drivers, although Tancinco said they cannot yet point out the specific regulation that should be imposed.

He also clarified that while the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has the regulatory authority over all motor vehicles, local government units also have the power to regulate and issue permits to vehicles within their territorial jurisdiction.