Cabbies see lesser earnings as P30 flag-down rate starts

Passengers wait for a taxi ride at the South Road Properties after visiting a newly opened mall there in this November 2015 file photo. (CDN FILE)

Lidio Concepcion, 57, shook his head as he counted his P360 earnings for three hours of driving a taxi in Cebu City yesterday, which was the start of the implementation of the  P30 flag-down rate for taxis.

“Kulang pa jud ni. Layo pa kaayo ni sa tinuod (I still have a long way to go with this),” Concepcion, a Cool Taxi driver, told Cebu Daily News during an interview.

It was still 8 a.m. and he had to earn at least P3,000 for 24 hours of taxi driving to have a take-home pay of at least P500 to P600.

But with the P10 cut in the flag-down rate of the previous P40, Concepcion said this will affect his current take-home pay by at least P200.

Concepcion said the 24-hour cab rent of P1,120 and gasoline of P1,000 will be deducted from his day’s earnings, and he will be left with his average take home-pay of P500 to P600. This is with the P40 flag-down rate.

He said he was saddened by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board’s (LTFRB) decision on the P30 flag-down rate and adjustments in waiting time and distance rate.

Concepcion, who is from Barangay Cansaga, Consolacion, has been a cabbie for 12 years.

He said  two of his children had already finished college with just his income as a taxi driver, and he still has two children more to send to school — one is in college while the other is in high school.

Aside from sending his two kids to school, he said his wife recently suffered a stroke, which is  an added challenge to the family’s income.

PARDO DRIVER

Another taxi driver, Nestor Bejaga, who is from Barangay Pardo, Cebu City, also said that he too earns an average of P400 to P500 a day.

Bejaga, who had been a driver for seven years, said in Cebuano that they need to have at least 20 passengers on average a day to reach that average take-home pay.

Bejaga, who is the breadwinner of a family of three, said the new P30 flag-down rate will also affect his income by at least P200.

“This is a big problem especially that I am the bread winner in the family.  But we have no choice but to follow the law,” he told Cebu Daily News.

He said he  also worries that the new distance rate and waiting time may cause arguments between the drivers and passengers.

The LTFRB approved P30 permanent flag-down rate last March 8, which has been implemented starting yesterday.

The regular taxi’s rate for succeeding kilometers has also been adjusted to P3.50 for every succeeding 500 meters after the first 500 meters, which was 300 meters before.

The current waiting time rate of P3.50 per 120 seconds will be applied every 90-seconds instead.

The new flag-down rate for taxis and airport taxis, which also has a P10 cut from their P70 flag-down rate,  shall be effective even without calibration and resealing of their taxi meters.

LTFRB board member lawyer Antonio Enrile Inton Jr. said drivers who fail to follow the new flag-down, distance and waiting time rates will be penalized for overcharging.

The penalty for such franchise violation is P5,000, said Inton.