{"id":109653,"date":"2017-08-03T04:57:07","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T08:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=109653"},"modified":"2017-08-03T04:57:07","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T08:57:07","slug":"taxi-operators-eye-similar-ride-hailing-app-as-uber-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/03\/taxi-operators-eye-similar-ride-hailing-app-as-uber-grab\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxi operators eye similar ride-hailing app as Uber, Grab"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_109654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-109654\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TaxiAug3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-109654\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TaxiAug3-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Philippine National Taxi Operators Association (PNA photo)\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TaxiAug3-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TaxiAug3-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TaxiAug3-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/TaxiAug3.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-109654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philippine National Taxi Operators Association (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"background: white;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">MANILA, Aug. 3 &#8212; A taxi operators group on Wednesday said that it is eyeing the creation a ride-hailing application similar to Uber and Grab to \u201clevel the playing field\u201d in providing transportation service to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Philippine National Taxi Operators Association (PNTOA) head Bong Suntay, during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, recognized that taxis and its drivers had its flaws, but stressed that these were due to \u201climits\u201d to regulations set by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Taxi operators have repeatedly blamed Uber and Grab for a decline in the number of passengers who hail taxis and for the number of drivers who prefer to work for transport network companies (TNCs).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">&#8220;We have nothing against Uber and Grab. We have always believed that the market is big enough for all of us to co-exist but co-existence but under a level playing field,&#8221; Suntay said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Suntay acknowledged that while taxi drivers refused passengers, usually during traffic, it was because they did not have the dynamic pricing scheme or surge pricing offered by transport network vehicle services (TNVS).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">&#8220;What makes them distinct is they could use the application to tell passengers how much they pay. We are limited on using the taxi meter. We basically use the same vehicles. What makes us distinct are regulations,&#8221; he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Suntay also asked for the conduct an &#8220;automatic review&#8221; of taxi fare every two years with or without inflation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Former taxi driver now Grab driver Ronald de Guzman, agreed that the reason why he switched to driving for a TNVS service was because he could not meet the daily boundary required for taxis at PHP1,200 to 1,500.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Grab Country Head Brian Cu said that a Grab driver earns around PHP18,000 a month (or five and a half day) or PHP600-700 daily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services, welcomed the proposal to create an app for taxis and the request for a review of taxi fare every two years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">&#8220;We\u2019re going to craft a law that makes it fair (for both taxis and TNVS). Developing an app wherein taxis can be contracted will allow them to have price competition,&#8221; Poe told reporters in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;text-align: start;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif';color: black\">&#8220;We should have an automatic review. The reason why (taxi) drivers refuse passengers, complain, is because of traffic and the meager amount they earn while Grab and Uber are allowed to have price surges. It\u2019s not a level playing field. That\u2019s what we need to consider in crafting legislation,&#8221; she added.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA, Aug. 3 &#8212; A taxi operators group on Wednesday said that it is eyeing the creation a ride-hailing application &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":109654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[19839,20342,20341,2132],"class_list":["post-109653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-grab","tag-ride-hailing-app","tag-taxi-operators","tag-uber","mauthors-azer-n-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}