After the LTFRB announced its decision to introduce the “premium taxi” service, netizens were up in arms about this, especially in recent times when the transportation bureau has been supposedly unreasonably hard on Uber.
In fact, one netizen took to writing an open letter addressed to LTFRB about their “crackdown” on transport network companies like Uber and GrabCar, and the premium taxi service!
The netizen, Drew Uy, posted an open letter on his Facebook account, and highlighted the failure of the LTFRB to enforce their rules and regulations on erring public transport systems. According to him, there are so many existing problems on the road such as overcrowded buses, greedy taxi drivers, and smog-emitting jeepneys, yet the LTFRB chooses to ignore all those and instead goes after services like Uber unreasonably!
Drew also added that while the LTFRB insists that Uber is “unsafe” and “unregistered”, the general public prefers these services more over their supposedly “regulated” and “registered” public transport systems that is funded by none other than… the public’s TAXES!
Here’s the full transcript of his open letter:
Dear LTFRB,
I believe you are totally missing the point.
You want to know why citizens prefer Uber and GrabCar over your “regulated” cabs?Let’s first dismiss the fact that your “regulated” busses and bus schemes (with MMDA) fail to comply ever so slightly on your “regulations”. Do you know how much chairs they cram into a “60-seater bus?” Do you know how much more passengers they cram in SRO position? Do you know what traffic rules they follow?
Let’s also dismiss how jeeps “pass” your “quality” emission testing facilities and LTO’s “quality” drivers’ license exams.
Let’s also dismiss the fact that your “regular taxis” have their own set of rules on where they wish to go and how fast they want to get from point a to point b. Not mentioning how more than half of your “regular taxi” drivers sleep in said cabs stinking up the vehicle for rent. Not mentioning also, how safe it REALLY is that’s why citizens take photos of your “regular taxis” and send them to friends to make sure we can alert proper authorities when something does happen. Even then, it would have all been too late.
Let’s dismiss MRT. Yeah, let’s dismiss that entirely.
The point of the matter is Uber employs respectful, and traffic obedient people (not so much on driving skills) as vanguards of their brand (yes there are one offs that don’t really fit the bill but these are outliers that hardly comprise a fraction of Uber in its entirety.)
The point of the matter is Uber is not doing anything wrong. In fact, Uber’s presence forced your hand into creating your “premium taxi” category to try and earn more of our hard earned taxes. You can keep heralding that Uber is “unsafe” and “unregistered” and “uninsured” but, fact of the matter is, people trust them more than they trust their safety on your “registered”, “safe”, and “organised” “SYSTEM” and “STRUCTURE” that is being run by OUR TAXES.
Maybe you should really rethink your “STRATEGIES” and do well with the 14 million you are servicing in Metro Manila. Before you go off destroying a trusted “rogue” transport system.
Mr. D
What do you think of this netizen’s open letter? Do you agree with him or not?
