Uber & Grab car is a necessity in Manila
While I submit that I don't belong to the age of the millennials, however I'm proud to say for my age, I'm still considered a geek. That's someone who is abreast with modern digital technology. This is why our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky tonight is entitled "Geeks on a Beach" which is actually an international summit on technology, startups and design that will be held at the Princess Garden Island Resort and Spa Hotel in Palawan on August 24 and 25. This International Technology Summit is hosted by TechTalks.ph and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
To talk about this International Technology Summit we have with us Ms. Tina Amper, the organizer, and Mr. Albert Padin, Google Expert Developer for Cloud and co-chief of Geeks on a Beach. This is the third year that this international event has been held in the Philippines, so the organizers expect more than 3,000 delegates to attend this event in Palawan. So watch this show tonight on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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I was in Manila over the weekend and apparently it was the perfect time to check out the biggest story happening in the country, the issue between the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and the ride-sharing transportation phenomenon called Uber. As we all know, Uber has been suspended by the LTFRB, suddenly there was a serious lack of taxicabs. This gave me an idea of the importance of Uber in the transport industry.
Last Friday afternoon, from the Mall of Asia, we tried getting a taxicab that was lined up near the entrance, to Makati and three taxicabs rejected us, giving us a lame excuse that traffic was bad. Come now, since when was Manila free from traffic? This is the huge difference between Uber and Grab Car compared to taking an ordinary taxicab. Unfortunately the LTFRB cannot see that a great majority of the Filipino riding public would rather take this ride-sharing transportation companies.
If you want to know the difference between Uber and Grab car, if you take Uber, you need to summon them using their application on your cellphone and they will inform you how many minutes the vehicle will arrive in your destination, the name of the driver, and the type of vehicle and its plate number.
Both Uber and Grab have the same system, but in Uber your payment is through your phone, meaning there is no cash transaction. If you use Grab you need to pay cash to the driver. So in effect, Uber is a cashless transaction limited only to people who use high-tech cellular technology common among the yuppies or millennials of today. Since Uber is a cashless system, the chances of anyone robbing the driver is next to zero as there is no money to steal from the driver.
Incidentally, there is a proposal to come up with a law that will force our transport regulators to take public transportation at least once or twice a week, which I fully support simply because these bureaucrats seem to enjoy inflicting maximum harm on the Filipino riding public all these years. For instance, they never solved the still ongoing issue of taxicabs denying passengers a ride using traffic as an excuse. Indeed, many taxicabs are dilapidated and dirty with drivers who cannot even communicate with you, or wear untidy clothing, or worse…smell!
We were able to get a Grab car on Friday evening and I had a very interesting conversation with the driver who spoke impeccable English because he was merely using Grab as his sideline. He said his income in driving was more than enough to pay for the amortization of his Mitsubishi car and his gasoline bills. His main job was at a call center. However, he told us that three of his co-workers in the call center already quit their job because they earned more as drivers of Grab cars.
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