Cuizon
DRIVERS or those, who plan to buy cars for Transport Network Vehicle Services (TNVS) purposes, are advised not to pursue their plans because the TNVS applicant-slots are already full.
Regional Director Ahmed Cuizon of Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) made this call to businessmen and private drivers planning to go this route.
“I want to reiterate my call for people to stop buying new cars for TNVS purposes. The list of applicants is full already. Priority will be given to existing applicants. Let’s not worsen street congestion with more and more new cars everyday,” Cuizon said.
When asked about LTFRB Board Member Aileen Lizada’s announcement that the agency would only process TNVS permit applications received as of July 2017, Cuizon said it was only fair for drivers who applied ahead.
He added that the original deadline for accepting applications was September 2016, and that time, the region had recorded at least 740 applications.
Cuizon, in a previous interview, said that the LTFRB Central Office had allotted only 500 TNVS slots in Cebu, while there are around 800 pending applications submitted to the regional office and more than 6,000 pending applications to the offices of Transport Network Companies (TNCs) like Grab and Uber in Cebu.
“If Grab and Uber only stopped accepting new operators after the September 2016 deadline set by LTFRB, the problem would not have grown as big as it is today,” Cuizon said in phone interview on Saturday.
He said that there are 740 pending applications for franchises in LTFRB-7, and of this number 103 units were earlier issued provisional authority (PAs), a temporary permit to operate as a TNVS.
He also said that out of the 103 units only 48 came back to renew their PAs.
When Grab Philippines was sought for a comment, Leo Gonzales, Grab Philippines head for public affairs, said in a phone interview on Saturday that they stopped accrediting applications since July 16, 2017.
“Grab officially stopped accrediting applications as of July 16, 2017. Wala na kaming pending applications, kasi hindi na kami nag-aaccept,” he said.
He said they have submitted an initial number of 54,000 active drivers nationwide to the LTFRB’s master list.
“When we say active, within the past 90-days nakakuha sila ng pasahero,” he explained.
He said that he was hopeful that the LTFRB would consider to review the Memorandum Circular which limits to only 45,000 units.
“For the cap in Cebu which is very small. We are not happy for the cap of 500,” he said.
But Cuizon said TNCs could not blame the LTFRB for this.
“They cannot also blame the LTFRB because we did issue repeated warnings. In fact, LTFRB-7 made numerous apprehensions of colorum TNVS which were met with severe criticisms,” he said.