MANILA — Ride-sharing company Grab Philippines will ask the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to reconsider its order suspending the PHP2 per minute travel charge to its riders.
This as Grab maintained that the travel duration rate is legal and in accordance with a 2015 order of the Department of Transportation that allows transportation network companies (TNCs) to set their own fare rates.
In a statement Thursday, Grab Country Head Brian Cu said drivers would not earn a sustainable income and would be forced to quit their jobs as transport network vehicle services operators if the PHP2 per minute charge is stopped, resulting in fewer vehicles for passengers.
Cu said this will lead to longer waiting time for the riders, causing fare prices to increase drastically while other passengers from far locations may be left unallocated.
“This order sounds populist but is actually anti-people because it will hurt the drivers and the passengers more. The PHP2 fare component is not a Grab income since 80 percent goes to the driver, and the 20 percent left is used for additional driver incentives and passenger promos,” he said.
“We hope the public realizes that this PHP2 fare component was implemented for their own benefit and not Grab’s,” he added.
Cu also said that Grab had presented its fare structure, including the PHP2 per minute charge, in a technical working group meeting with the LTFRB in July 2017, after imposing the charge the previous month.
In its order dated April 18, LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra III said the suspension remains in effect as the Board investigates the issue.
The Board has said there was no mention of any travel time rate, which Grab has been collecting, when it released its order on the fare structure of TNCs on Dec. 27, 2016.
What the December 2016 order stipulates is that TNCs such as Grab should impose a flagdown rate of PHP40, with an additional rate of PHP10 to PHP14 per kilometer. (Aerol John Pateña/PNA)
