The five hundred thousand jobs to be opened after a deal by Malacanang with popular ride hailing company Grab Philippines may not be fulfilled if the government does not streamline it’s acceptance requirement for drivers wishing to join the business.
The President earlier announced that in a deal with Grab, some 500,000 thousand jobs will be opened up via the ride hailing app. This means opening up the cap for Transport Network Vehicles Service or TNVS from the current 65,000 units for all players nationwide, to 500K for Grab alone.
The Land Transportation Franchise Regulatory Board (LTFRB) immediately announced an additional 100,000 slots open for TNVS right after the announcement from the office of the President. LTFRB Director Teofilo Guadiz III said these slots can be filled upon fulfillment of all necessary requirements by those wishing become ride hailing transport drivers.
However, this may not be as easy as it sounds. Grab says in an intimate briefing with business and motoring journalists bared that the requirements needed by applicants are so strict that it is almost impossible to get a Provisional Authority (PA) to operate unless the applicant buys a brand new car with cash.
According to the rules set by LTFRB, an applicant needs a car that is not older than three (3) years and must acquire a Certificate of Conformity (COC) from the bank if the car is amortized.
The first is unusual since why would one turn his car into a paid carpool service if he just got it brand new? Isn’t it natural to enjoy the car first, especially since for the ride hailing business, the philosophy is that existing car owners are encouraged to avoid adding more cars to the our already congested roads?
The second is virtually impossible because the banks simply refuse to issue COC for varied reasons like safety of the car, wear and tear, condition of the car when it is repossessed and so on.
As of the moment, Grab has yet to fulfill or successfully process the 4,000 units applying to them when the LTFRB opened these slots last December due to public clamor.
Grabs Managing Director for Operations said some 80% of all applicants fail the application process because of these two requirements alone. “Just the COC, if the LTFRB can remove this requirement, we will be the ones to ask the banks for this instead of the applicants then the approval process will be five times faster, and we may be able to fulfill this 100K slots opened by LTFRB. As it is, the 100K slots may take us two years, what more the full 500K offered by Malacanang,” Roda explains.
0 Comments