Have vaccine will travel

With vaccines rolling out, the airline industry is one of the first in the world to see enhanced mobility, especially with the adoption of innovative health passport apps that give passengers a clean bill of health, foremost of any COVID-19 infection.

Key to bringing economies back to normal during the long transition while waiting for the deadly virus to be fully eradicated globally will be the normalization of all transport services, which would include ships, trains, and buses. In the Philippines, this would include jeepneys and tricycles.

One study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) extrapolated that Filipinos made 35.5 million daily trips around Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan, with jeepneys accounting for about 20 percent of all trips.

The JICA study also says Filipino use of tricycles account for 16 percent of all trips, twice as many of bus trips and four times of train trips. Private car and motorcycle trips made up about eight percent of all trips.

In an economy where our cities account for 60 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP), getting people back to work through the public transportation system will be critical to overcoming the current economic regression.

More importantly, getting the supply chains running smoothly without compromising the health of our interconnected communities will prevent larger lockdowns. We all know that the virus cannot travel long distances; the risk comes from people who carry the virus.

New normal of travel

Acknowledging this, the government has put caution above almost everything else to contain the virus spread at manageable levels, enough to keep the economy going without the risk of straining hospital capacity and health workers’ stamina.

Under this transition period of land travel, citizens must still wear a facemask and face shield at all times inside a moving vehicle. Passenger “cubicles” are created in public utility vehicles through the installation of plastic sheet to add a layer of protection.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is trying its utmost best to encourage commuters to shift to a digital payment system. This push to go cashless for PUVs would likely remove off the road the remaining 7,000 or so old jeepneys given temporary permission recently to operate in the coming months.

Under cover of the pandemic threat, the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) is getting a better chance at moving ahead. Participating government banks have opened up access to more funds to acquire modern jeepneys that will replace more than the 180,000 jeepneys that had been operating before mid-March when the quarantines were imposed.

The Land Bank of the Philippines had approved last August P737.21 million worth of loans to 16 borrowers, which would facilitate the acquisition of 407 modern jeepneys powered by environmentally compliant Euro 4/5 diesel engines and equipped with an automatic fare collection device. Another P2 billion has been set aside for buses.

Pushing ahead

Across the country, the DOTr is pushing ahead with the PUVMP, albeit on a slightly delayed schedule versus the original intention when the plan was first unveiled in 2017.

Prior lockdowns, the DOTr’s Office of Transportation Cooperatives had started accrediting more than 1,100 cooperatives representing over 110,000 drivers and operators in preparation for full program implementation by June 2020.

Now on catch-up mode, the DOTr has doubled up its efforts despite the modified lockdown restraints to roll out new jeepneys and buses. In recent months, city after city have been announcing the opening up of routes for the newly formed cooperatives.

The demise of the old jeepneys looks imminent.

Fit to fly

The country’s airline industry, more than shipping, have fared worse during the lockdowns. Aside from job cuts announced by AirAsia Philippines, Cebu Pacific, and Philippine Airlines, the challenge of loan restructurings weighs heavy.

After borrowing billions of pesos to acquire new planes, the trickling of revenue streams for most part of 2020 has exposed airline companies to unprecedented losses. Equally crippling was the need to return payments on advance bookings, a marketing pitch that had become rampant in the industry before the pandemic.

This period in airline history may seem like a temporary hiccup for the fittest companies, especially with the pandemic end already in sight and encouraging news of an effective vaccine almost ready for mass manufacture and distribution now a reality.

It will be interesting to see how our airlines will impose vaccination as a requisite to air travel, a practice that the US is just starting.

Freedom to travel

In the transportation sector’s post-pandemic world, retrenchments have become inevitable to survive – and this involves not just airline pilots, but also jeepney drivers who failed to sign up with a cooperative or seamen whose cruise ships had to be grounded.

Better days are ahead for them, though. With global health expected to bounce back soon, laid-off pilots and seamen will find more jobs reopening, and displaced jeepney drivers will likely be able to adapt to other forms of earning money.

We all yearn to get back the freedom of travel that we had always enjoyed, and while it may still not be possible now, better news is coming. Sit tight for a little more time, folks, as the world edges closer to the end of this pandemic.

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