Motorcycle taxi riders have gotten a new reprieve as a QC Regional Trial Court granted a 20-day temporary restraining order against the riders cap imposed by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) that limited the number of Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Manila and 3,000 in Cebu.
Citing the irreparable injury that would be suffered by the bikers if the number of bikers is limited to 30,000 in Metro Manila and 9,000 for Metro Cebu, to be divided equally among the providers, is not restrained and considering the urgency of the situation, the QC RTC Branch 223 issued the TRO enjoining the LTFRB from implementing the riders cap for a period of 20 days.
It may be recalled that the Technical Working Group of the LTFRB, which was overseeing the implementation of the pilot program for motorcyle taxis, issued on December 19 the Revised Guidelines practically slashing the number of the 27,000 existing Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Metro Manila. This was met with uproar by netizens and commuters who have come to rely on Angkas for their daily commute.
Also, the QC TRO affirms the stand that several congressmen as well as the Philippine Competition Committee (PCC) took in previous weeks.
In a statement before the previous year ended, House Committee on Transportation chair Edgar Sarmiento aired his concern about the suspension of motorcycle taxi services. "Habang hindi pa naaayos ang efficiency ng mass transportation, kailangan natin talaga ang support muna ng isang sektor kung saan tinutulungan nila ang mamamayan na umabot naman sa pinupuntahan nila sa madaling panahon," he stated.
For his part, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, previously slammed the LTFRB for its arbitrary decision to drastically reduce the number of bikers of the ride-hailing firm Angkas, calling it an anti-consumer and anti-competitive behavior. "Why don’t they just open the market to new players? And why the arbitrary reduction of licenses at the expense of consumers’ choice and welfare?” Sarmienta stressed.
In an interview, Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) commissioner Johannes Bernabe said that forcing Angkas to displace 17,000 riders will take away what was rightfully obtained by the company.
“Being big per se is not necessarily bad. It’s the abuse of that dominant position [that’s bad]," Bernabe was reported to have said. “Angkas grew out of its own efforts,” Bernabe said in the interview. “In a sense, you are taking away what Angkas has worked hard on obtaining, which is a driver base,” he added.
After series of issues on Motorcycle Taxis, TWG, LTFRB, DOTr, a press briefing by Angkas chief transport advocate George Royeca was held to share and clear things on Angkas activities.
Royeca: I own 60% of Angkas.
Out of 117k trained, only 26k are activated. There is 63% failure.
Angkas assisted 360 bikers daily, 20k bikers are retrained, and put up 50 field support and retraining activities during the 6-month Pilot.
Angkas MC trainers are trained by a US firm that trains the US Marines and the PNP HPG.
As far as surge pricing, Angkas will comply to LTFRB, new fare price will start today.
Angkas in GenSan and CDO now operates as Angkas Padala.
App-based motorcycle taxi service provider Angkas has committed to work with government regulators in ensuring the success of the motorcycle taxi pilot run.
In a press briefing, Angkas Chief Transport Advocate George Royeca said that they will continue to work with government regulators and not against them, even as he expressed his hope for the riders cap to be lifted so that everyone can proceed with the extended pilot run smoothly and without any hitches.
Angkas commends regulators
“First off, I would like to commend the government for seriously considering motorcycle taxis as an added transport option for Filipino commuters amid the ongoing traffic crisis,” Royeca stressed. “We are also hopeful that lawmakers will find merit in what we have been espousing all these months—that motorcycle taxis are crucial to addressing our countrymen’s mobility problems,” he added.
Royeca also clarified that they are not picking a fight with government regulators. “Right from start, we worked hard to be compliant with everything the LTFRB and the DOTR’s TWG had set in the first motorcycle taxi test run. For six whole months last year, there was never any problem,” Royeca noted.
“It must be noted that we complied with everything that the TWG asked us to do in the initial test run. We did a re-training of all our riders. We gave our riders safety vests based on the recommendation of the TWG. We are continuously complying to the best of our abilities with the new pilot guidelines,” Royeca revealed.
Not against competition
Royeca also emphasized that he was not against competition in the motorcycle taxi industry. ‘I would like to emphasize that even back then, I knew there will be new players as soon as motorcycle taxis become the subject of legislation and regulated,” he noted. “I have never aspired to establish a monopoly,” he stressed.
When word got out that the LTFRB will be extending the run with new players, Royeca was interviewed in the media and was reported to have said that he was totally fine with the inclusion of new players in the test run extension. “This means that people have begun to realize the importance of motorcycle taxis in helping our commuters beat the daily traffic,” he noted.
In a presentation he showed during the briefing Royeca reported that a total of 117,166 bikers have applied with Angkas. Of that number, 36,797 bikers were onboarded. However, only 26,478 were retrained and activated for the first pilot run and 10,378 were deactivated.
Three years to build a competent and safe bikers fleet
“It took us three years and dozens of safety training sessions and hundreds of hours of training to come up with a fleet of 27,000 competent bikers,” Royeca shared. “You cannot build a competent and safe biker network overnight,” he added.
Royeca also reported that in the three years since Angkas started, the Angkas app was downloaded three million times. In the course of the pilot run, they have recorded millions of rides. In terms of the service’s safety record, Angkas riders had only .003% accidents with zero fatalities.
Angkas also has in place an Emergency Response Team and Medical Accident Network with six Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)-trained full-time employees, 42 EMR-trained biker respondents, 12 on-call doctors, and eight affiliate hospitals. During the initial pilot run, the average response time recorded was 30 minutes.
Royeca also reported that Angkas has set aside an accident emergency fund to cover expenses above and beyond what’s provided by the private insurance. The company also ensures proper financial controls and standard operating procedures for quick fund disbursement for immediate patient assistance.
Investing continuous safety training and support
“We have invested so much in continuous training – our trainors have been trained by a US firm that trains the US Marines and conducts motorcycle rider licensing and accreditation for the California and Pennsylvania State Department of Motor Vehicles. They have also undergone training with the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (HPG), and we are continuously working on updating and improving further our trainings,” Royeca noted.
“Moreover, I believe a support system for our bikers is necessary after they’ve passed our screening in order for them to continuously provide excellent service to our customers,” Royeca added, stating that their system averages doing assistance to 360 riders per day.
In terms of training, Royeca reported that they have retrained over 20,000 bikers for the initial pilot run. They had a total of 50 field retraining activities with riders getting retrained practically every week.
For six months from July to December of 2019, the safety record of Angkas was reported as 99.997%. “We tried our utmost best to maintain a high safety record for the benefit of all our passengers. We are proud to say that our high service standards were maintained in the test run,” Royeca stressed.
When asked about their pricing scheme, Royeca said, “The reason for our dynamic pricing is essentially to be able to encourage more bikers on the road to meet the demand. But because it is not allowed in the pilot, we will comply. We just want to give a heads up that this may result in bikers going back to habal-habal and that there'd be substantially fewer Angkas bikers on the road.”
The riders cap: the real issue
“So, again, I would like to emphasize that our fight is with a particular provision and not with the government bodies. Our fight is with the riders cap—an unfair and anti-competitive provision that will effectively punish the majority of our riders who have been working hard for six months,” he noted.
“What we really want is to have the cap removed or increase the cap for all motorcycle taxi providers, not just Angkas, because the market is still terribly underserved and we need more bikers on the road,” Royeca emphasized.
“We will try our best to be compliant with government rules and regulations,’ Royeca declared. “And I would like to reinforce on public record that we have always and will continue to work with government regulators and not against them. But on the same breath, we ask for fairness, in consideration of all the hard work we have done to comply with government regulators since last year.”
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The motorcycle riders who have recently been rendered jobless are fighting back.
Angkas bikers today successfully secured a 72-hour Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the new Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) policy limiting the number of Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Manila and 3,000 in Cebu.
Citing the grave and irreparable injury that these bikers stand to suffer and they extreme urgency of the situation, the Regional Trial Court ruled to grant the temporary restraining Order which restrains the LTFRB and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) from implementing the Revised Guidelines on the motorcycle taxi pilot program, which limits the number of bikers.
“A 72-hour Temporary Restraining Order is hereby issued upon posting of a bond in the amount of Three Hundred Thousand Pesos (P300,000.00), enjoining the respondents and/or any other person/s acting for or on their behalf, from implementing the Revised General Guidelines for the Pilot Implementation of Motorcycle Taxis insofar as it puts a cap on the number of bikers that Angkas is entitled to and from performing any act that limits and impairs their rights to deal with an continue with their contracts with Angkas,” the Order states.
“This proves that justice is on our side. We are only trying to make an honest living and helping commuters everyday to get to their destinations fast and safe,” said Rommel Villanueva, one of the bikers who filed the Petition. “Why should the government stop us? Why should our families go hungry? We are not doing anything wrong,” he added.
It may be recalled that the Technical Working Group of the LTFRB which was overseeing the implementation of the pilot program for motorcyle taxis issued on December 19 the Revised Guidelines practically slashing the number of the 27,000 existing Angkas bikers to 10,000 in Metro Manila. This was met with uproar by netizens and commuters who have come to rely on Angkas for their daily commute.
The Angkas bikers, for their part, lost no time in filing a Petition for Injunction with the Regional Trial Court today and asked for a 72-hour TRO.
