Bus firm cancels honesty system in fare collection

MANILA, Philippines — Another effort to promote honesty among Filipinos has failed, this time by a bus company that tried to remove conductors and encouraged passengers to pay upon entry in a drop box near the driver.

The Green Frog Hybrid Bus Co. announced that it will return the conductor fare collection system nine days after they piloted the new policy.

Green Fog buses ply in the cities of Pasay and Makati with limited stops.

“We are disappointed to see that the honesty system did not work. Over 30 percent of the passengers did not pay their fare,” it announced on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

Describing it as a system used in first world countries, the company implemented the pay upon entry using exact fare or tap cards last March 11.

It urged passengers to line up “like decent human beings” at bus stops, have exact fare ready and pay the driver through a drop box or use tap cards as there will be no conductors.

Bus personnel were also deployed in some bus stops to assist passengers.

A little over a week later, however, the policy was scrapped.

In a statement sent to reporters, the bus company expressed disappointment over the failure of the honesty system.

“We believe the Filipino is basically honest... (The) data show that the majority or 70 percent of the riders are honest,” said the company.

“It is sad because this happened on the route with the most educated population in the country – most of our riders are office workers and university students in Makati. Yet the 30 percent who refused to pay are part of this educated group,” it added.

Green Frog, which introduced the first two-door low-floor hybrid buses six years ago, vowed to continue providing innovations to help improve public transportation.