Move jeepneys to unserved routes

Leaders of jeepney drivers' groups seemed to have claimed that the transport strike last Monday was a success because they said that it paralyzed around 95 percent of the routes in Metro Manila. These jeepney groups were protesting the phaseout of old commuter vehicles. Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (Piston) President Mody Floranda said that most drivers and operators supported the transport strike in the metropolis where an estimated three million commuters ride the jeepney every day. In truth, one of the best reasons we need to phase out jeepneys is the fact that most of them are already old and decrepit and the time has come to change them.

Just last night, I saw two jeepneys driving along Gorordo Ave. with no lights, which gives you an idea that safety is not even considered by these jeepney drivers; what is more important for them is to save their batteries. Perhaps it is time for us to ask Piston president Floranda what his organization has done to ensure the safety of the riding public. Jeepneys that operate on our roads without using their headlights seriously violate road laws. For decades, they have continued to do so because at night it is when our traffic officers are already off duty and these jeepney drivers anyway couldn’t care any less for the riding public.

Perhaps it is high time for Piston or perhaps the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to conduct a thorough survey as to what the riding public wants. Do they want to keep the jeepney because Piston says it can keep fares affordable for the people? Or they want new vehicles on the road that are already available for the public to use? At this point, I believe that more important than low prices is that our mass transportation system must be at least air-conditioned, which unfortunately the jeepney today is not. Air-conditioning has been with us for the past 40-years and yet the jeepney operators or drivers never installed them so as to make jeepney comfortable to ride for the public.

When the jeepneys entered our public scene, peopled accepted them simply because they were a better means of transportation than the tartanilla or calesa in Manila. But those were the days after the end of World War II. Even the airline industry had to change from the days of the DC-3, the Vicounts and the Fokkers. Today if you belonged to the airline industry and used a DC-3 so you could be the cheapest airline, you will go bankrupt in few months. This is a very competitive industry.

The same thing is true with the shipping industry where no responsible ship owner would use an old FS vessel to transport its passengers and cargoes across the seas. Today we have roll-on and roll-off vessels so vehicle owners can ride to their destination bringing along their cars so they can drive into the places they want to go.

Ok let’s go back to Land Transportation and talk about the taxi industry. If taxi companies do not use cars without any air-conditioning, you are not going to make it in this business. Of course without any question taxi fares are more expensive than jeepney fares, which brings us once more to the issue of why can’t the jeepney use air-conditioning in order to give comfort to their passengers?

At this point, we learned from the President that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) have not stopped their modernization program to remove the jeepneys from Metro Manila, Metro Cebu or Metro Davao. At this point, I suggest to the LTRFB to transfer all jeepneys to areas that are still served by the tricycles. As we all know, tricycles carry a limited number of passengers and run so slow they really worsen the traffic situation. Come on, many areas in Cebu City have to rely on the habal-habal because there are no jeepneys serving a lot of areas. This is where the DOTr should focus on. Jeepneys should be removed from traffic-clogged areas and sent to areas that they never cared to serve.

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