Why please Piston?

Continued from last week

WHAT would make the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide happy is the government shouldering the cost of jeepney replacements and either cancelling all the new regulatory and documentary requirements or administeringhese. The Piston lobby accuses the government of pushing it to accept an alternative to a government-mandated private conglomerate franchised to operate in the entire city. It’s economically palatable, come to think of it. Bid out the administration and management of the jeepney system to the private sector via an operations and management public- private partnership. But to PISTON, this is just another greedy corporatist grab at its means of living.

Why should the jeepney be treated differently from other forms of public conveyance like city and provincial buses, taxis, tricycles and TNVCs like Grab and the sorely-missed Uber? What is to stop the jeepney system from becoming a state-owned organization, similar to what the Metro Manila Transit Corp. did for the metro’s buses? This was the thinking in the ‘70s – why should there be a special mom-pop-enterprise category for jeepneys? The country’s bus industry was already streamlining because of heightened competition, with more and more small-scale companies being absorbed

Why should the Philippines and the jeepneys be different from other countries? Save for some Latin American countries, big cities usually have one or two well- regulated public transport monopolies that have unified and coordinated intermodal means of transport ranging from river ferries, light rail, subway, light buses and even taxis. Today’s TfL or transport for London is an example of a wellintegrated public transport system.

The proposed jeepney corporation will be run like, say, Victory Liner with proper terminals, stops,

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business, the driver will now have a conductor on

its interactive 4x4 public exhibition at the Festive Walk Mall in the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, on Friday and Saturday.

The highlight of the weekend remains to be the 4x4 Xtreme Xperience Action Ramp, where brave volunteers/passengers experience riding a 4x43.0-liter Isuzu D-Max up and down a two-story-high steep, narrow metal ramp.

The Isuzu 4x4 Xtreme Xperience, which opens to the public at 12 noon and lasts until 10 in the evening, has been expanded to include more fun and engaging activities for all members of the family such as the 12-station “Consumer Journey.”

Special activities during the Isuzu 4x4 Xtreme Xperience Iloilo City leg include the dance competition, performances by Isuzu brand ambassadress, actress and singer Maja Salvador during the opening on Friday, and rapper Gloc 9 to close out the Xtreme Xperience on Sunday night.

Isuzu enthusiasts also have a chance to view the accessorized versions of the Isuzu D-MAX and Isuzu mu-X and test drive the Isuzu mu-X powered by the RZ4E engine.

Promos and discounts exclusive to the Xtreme Xperience are also offered during the three-day event. Admission to this weekend event is free.

The Isuzu 4x4 Xtreme Xperience is organized in partnership with Isuzu Iloilo, Globe Telecom and Pilipinas Shell.

For more information, log on to www. isuzuphil.com. tow so as to relieve him/her from distracted driving because of fare collection. It will have an administrative staff in order to pay salaries, expenses and all the proper taxes. This can be the new function of the private operator who can be compensated for his/her efforts via a cut in the daily income or a contract fee or a salary. The creation of a corporation or a cooperative is part of the DoTr’s jeepney modernization plan. Instead of one super metro-wide corporation capitalized at a whopping P500M, the revised DoTr reform offers several sizes of cooperatives and corporations depending on membership, paid-in capital and number of units, though for reasons of equity and practicality there will be no one-unit cooperatives. The LTFRB will be tightly entwined in jeepney operations, managing and changing franchised routes, maintaining route

co-ops toe the line.

Drivers and conductors will now have a basic subsistence salary. But in order to motivate them to perform better and maximize ridership, they will be given an incentive pro rata for every day they exceed a certain ridership minimum. It will work like a bonus, paid like a boundary system, but it will no longer mean the driver’s subsistence is dependent on it. This will eliminate trip cutting, reckless driving

income can be tracked and taxed. Perhaps the ideal is the Uber-Air BnB “gig economy” model. Uber partners are enticed to invest in a new car and let the Uber driving pay for the unit while keeping the owner well compensated in exchange for adherence to a strict code of conduct and performance-based accreditation, renewed periodically.

The government also devised a 5-6-7-8 system of

percent interest per annum, seven years to pay and P80,000 subsidy for jeepney acquisition. Though the proposed modernization program leaves room for the possibility of drivers amortizing ownership of their units, unless there is a drastically high increase in fares, a driver-owned unit, ala Uber, may not yet be feasible. Besides, the new rules discourage “lone wolf” operator franchise. So to answer Piston and their leftist allies’ complaints of diminished take home pay, the driver has a better chance and a more stable income if he just becomes an employee of the big bus/jeepney corporation. An alternative is where the government supplies all the new jeepneys and driver’s pay rent on a daily basis collected as a cut in their reported daily fare income, just like the boundary. Still, some drivers are just allergic to being on payroll. Driver resistance stems from having to answer to a boss other than themselves. Not surprisingly, Piston scoffs at all these.

The DoTr believes, after so many tries, that this jeepney modernization will most likely be the most acceptable reform ever. It is well- funded and if PRRD has his way, no operator or driver will be able to cling to their old jeepney units as these will be junked in favor of the new modern jeepney. Now this creates another problem, another bone of contention, and this time it will be the operators who will resist. Ironic since it is these very same jeepney operators who have been lobbying the government for heavy subsidies for new units. This is far dearer than the GMA- era attempt for a wholesale government- sponsored engine replacement program to achieve Euro 4 emissions compliance. These climbing costs -- a result of long neglected expenses for safer and cleaner jeepney – will zap the very operator who clamored for all the government freebies. Simply, the operator’s position or function will go extinct with the government or the PPP O& M contractor or even the jeepney co- op’s officers taking over his role as surrogate father, emergency loan provider and just plain benevolent boss. Still, personal relations count for a lot in such sectors of the informal economy, so we will have to see how this plays out.

What is lost in the protracted quarrel is the fact that PUV modernization isn’t just about jeepneys. The four classes will encompass the UV Express and multi- cabs, regulations for which are forthcoming. The operator substitute dilemma makes it the major hurdle for Piston to accept what is essentially a well- funded cash takeover of their industry. Since it will lose the one familiar means of living, you can expect Piston to fight tooth and nail. If this resistance is overcome, the jeepney industry will become just like its better- organized and readily- regulated bus counterpart, which it should have been in the first place. If one is not the sentimental type, perhaps we can call the new modernized jeepney system the Public Light Bus. Will we reach a point when the new jeepney

Like a certain media personality’s “the Filipino is worth driving for” plaint for Uber? We will only know if and when Piston stops fighting reform.

We won’t be leaving this topic without a noteworthy ray of hope. Early this year, the DoTr launched what is essentially its working model or template of what PUV modernization is like. In the Yolanda wasteland that is Tacloban, the LTFRB franchised three solar e- jeepney fleet cooperatives of 15 vehicles each. Each unit has the required GPS, dashcam and auto fare collection. The PUVs run on a schedule, so no dawdling at bus stops. No boundary system so drivers receive fixed salaries with max of 12 hours behind the wheel. The LTFRB also says the units need not be solar- powered as any of the proposed new jeepneys will be road legal. In fact, the franchises are “missionary”; i. e. routes that were previously not serviced and hence do not displace ancient jeepney monopolies. The LTFRB has judged it as a success, proof of which is the rising demand for more units and more franchises. The success is partly because the routes are between resettlement areas and the under rehabilitation central business district, ground zero post- typhoon Yolanda. That perhaps may well be the secret for the PUV modernization to succeed – a clean slate where no entitlement- hugging entrenched lobby exists, no opposition to encounter. All the LTFRB needs is for Piston to roll over and be dead, really dead.