Car pooling

Friday before last, my Singaporean daughter-in-law and grandson flew in to Manila for a short visit. The flight took about three and a half hours, but the ride from Terminal 3 to our condo in Pasig took over four hours.

Of course, she was surprised our traffic problem is as bad as she just experienced. I tried to explain it was a Friday pay day and it rained. If it was any comfort, I showed Facebook posts complaining of carmageddon on that particular afternoon. But still… as a Filipino, it was embarrassing for me to even have to explain. 

Saturday was not that much of an improvement. I explained Saturday is actually the worse day to be out in the streets. No number coding, people are going to the weekend mall sales and the trucks are out the whole day. The best thing to do on a Saturday is to chill out at home.

There are no painless stop-gap solutions to the problem while we wait for a civilized mass transport system. We are paying the price of neglect.

We will add close to half a million more vehicles in our streets starting this year. Expanding the road network and introducing enough infrastructures will not happen in the next five years to make a real difference.

In the meantime, government has imposed a number coding scheme that theoretically takes out 20 percent of vehicles each working day. But people keep buying new cars and negate the hoped for outcome.

Because the current number coding scheme isn’t working, government wants to require cars to be off the streets for two days in a week instead of one. It’s our rather lame way of improving the efficiency of transporting people from point A to point B.

In the absence of a good mass transit system, many people drive alone from their homes to the business districts where they work. If they take on another passenger or two going in the same direction, two cars can be taken off the road and the cost of the commute can be shared. They can also take turns driving.

Commuting is hellish. It should be easy to sell car pooling as an alternative to driving every day through hell or have to suffer two carless days imposed by government. We have the technology, from big data analytics to GPS to make car pooling easy and safe.

Believe it or not, the LTFRB stopped such an effort initiated by Uber, ironically enough in a program calling for modernizing our public transport system. That’s not surprising given that LTFRB is led by a provincial lawyer who apparently has little or no exposure to our brave new digital world. He cannot be expected to appreciate technology-based solutions to our current problems.

I googled and found an Uber video on YouTube which describes the car pool service Uber launched here. Simply, Uber used technology to match drivers and riders. They vet both drivers and riders, even required insurance. It is a vast improvement over the car pools we promoted in the old days of the energy crisis.

The Uber video claims that in the three months they were allowed to have Uber Shares, 120,000 people used it. According to Uber, it saved 1.5 million kilometers from being driven on crowded streets.

Indeed, the big Makati-based corporations can bring the concept a notch higher by taking the initiative and organize car pools for their employees. It is to their interest to get their employees in the office hassle free for greater productivity. Tech companies in Silicon Valley provide shuttle buses in San Francisco to take their employees to their Silicon Valley campuses for the same reason.

I understand San Miguel, Ayala, Megaworld, PAL, Globe, Smart, Phinma have partnered with Uber for a system called UberHop. It is different from Uber’s carpool scheme. But I just read a news report that LTFRB doesn’t like it too. 

But we desperately need such plans that should cover executives as well as rank and file for maximum effect. Such schemes can remove cars from the road and help reduce the anxiety associated with traffic problems. 

Government must encourage such initiatives. Establish some ground rules to protect riders and drivers, but don’t allow Neanderthal thinking (with apologies to Neanderthals) thumb down tech-based innovations. 

But LTFRB seems hopeless. It is determined to stop tech-based alternative transport solutions even if this is how people will move in cities in the near future. Actually, experience in major world capitals show the concept has already caught on now.

Without widely consulting those who will be affected, LTFRB drafted new rules that will require anyone who wants to drive under Uber or Grab to have at least 10 cars. That’s the old taxi fleet mentality at work.

Uber and Grab are not taxis and should not be regulated as such. Uber and Grab drivers are people who just want to make a little money on the side using their private cars.  

An Uber driver, for example, may be a returning OFW who bought a Vios for his family and uses it to earn a little something during times of the day when the kids are in school. My wife was once driven by a Grab driver who is really a graphic artist who normally works from home. 

LTFRB has already prevented Uber and Grab from expanding their current number of registered drivers/cars or even replacing those who drop off. This explains why it sometimes takes longer than it should to get an Uber or Grab driver after you call for one. Reducing the pool of Grab and Uber drivers is anti-consumer because it increases fares since demand and supply is at work in this business model.

We shouldn’t let the fossilized bureaucrats kill innovation because innovation makes our lives easier. Even in Singapore, I am told taxi drivers have started to be  more courteous and helpful to passengers after Uber. That’s competition and free market at work.

It is time for our regulators and legislators to get familiar and comfortable with new technological solutions to our problems. There will always be birthing pains, but there is no stopping technology. We only end up as technological laggards to the disadvantage of our people.

In any case, the old systems no longer work. Even with all the regulations LTFRB is imposing on taxis, we constantly get reports of bad and even criminal behavior among taxi drivers and it is not easy to trace them after. With Grab and Uber, there is a digital record of everything and 24/7 customer service to act on complaints.

I am a senior citizen myself, but I try to keep up with technology. Our government officials who are even younger than I am should not be afraid to do likewise. There is absolutely no excuse to keep old concepts that no longer work when new technology can make life a lot better.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco