Don’t let the inmates run the asylum
Credit to Author: BEN KRITZ, TMT| Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:23:13 +0000
SEVERAL tens of thousands of ride-hailing providers and customers are not going to like to hear this, but the government crackdown on motorcycle ride-hailing service Angkas is absolutely right and proper, and should be pursued with all necessary vigor.
Angkas has been at odds with the Department of Transportation and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) since it appeared in late 2016.
The conflict further heated up this week when the LTFRB issued a directive to law enforcement agencies to apprehend Angkas operators, following the Supreme Court’s imposing a temporary restraining order on a lower-court injunction that had allowed the service to operate temporarily.
For those who may not be familiar with it, Angkas operates in much the same way as Grab, using a mobile app which the company has said has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. To Angkas’ credit, it does try to operate responsibly. Operators must pass a safety training program and carry personal injury insurance, helmets and other protective gear are provided for riders, and the company imposes a long list of safety and customer service standards on its operators.
The service has by all accounts been very popular, with the LTFRB’s first move to take Angkas off the streets in November 2017 — based on the company’s not having a business permit for its Makati offices – setting off a furious public reaction. Customers of the service bewailed the government’s insensitivity in denying them an alternative to insufficient public transportation and crushing traffic gridlock. Angkas operators and their supporters played the livelihood card, the favorite lament of the oppressed, saying that as many as 25,000 people were being prevented from earning an income by the LTFRB’s heavy-handedness.
The LTFRB, despite its lip service to safety, is really only concerned about one thing, and that is whether or not a transport operator is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Angkas entered the Philippines using the Uber model, which is to simply show up and start operating regardless of regulations as a sort of formalized jitney service. By the time the authorities catch up, the sheer size of the company and demand for its service ideally will have grown so large that removing it would be even more disruptive.
It is a reckless way to do business, and should not be tolerated here in the Philippines where concepts like compliance and process regularity are not exactly taken to heart.
At the moment, there is no law that permits the use of motorcycles as public transportation vehicles. Under the Land Transportation and Traffic Code (RA 4136), motorcycles are classified as private or government vehicles, and the law specifically prohibits the “for hire” use of private and government vehicles. For Angkas to be able to operate legally, perhaps as a transport network vehicle service (TNVS), the law has to be amended.
Amending the law to allow that would be unwise, because no matter how responsible Angkas and its drivers may be in operating the service, it is inherently unsafe.
According to data compiled by the MMDA, motorcycles accounted for the highest numbers of people injured or killed in accidents around Metro Manila in 2017 – 12,182 and 247, respectively, out of 24,058 incidents, a casualty rate of about 51.6 percent. By contrast, 110,653 cars involved in accidents caused 7,681 injuries and 97 fatalities, meaning that the odds of being injured or killed on a motorcycle are about seven times greater than in a car. Proper training for both motorcycle and automobile drivers and strictly enforcing the use of safety gear would help to greatly reduce that disparity, but only to a point.
A bigger problem is that any safety improvements within the reach of the government, operators like Angkas, or the various well-meaning motorcycle safety advocacies in the country only effectively apply to motorcycles with single riders. Motorcycles are capable of carrying more than one person, but they are not actually designed to do so.
The suspension, braking, balance, and handling of a motorcycle are designed around one rider, so adding another (or more) reduces its performance and efficiency.
Using a motorcycle as a ‘habal-habal’ to transport more than one person is just an example of the sort of ad hoc philosophy that turned the jeepney into a regrettable cultural icon: A jerry-rigged answer to a pressing need, one that may work well enough, but in no way represents an effective, purpose-built solution.
Angkas, or any similar service, should not be allowed to operate, but the high demand for it should send a clear message to the LTFRB and the Department of Transportation that legal pathways to launching safe, reliable, and efficient public transportation options must be made easier. Putting a stop to unregulated and inherently unsafe transport activities is the right thing to do; doing that without encouraging the development of better options, however, is wrong.
ben.kritz@manilatimes.net
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