Amidst Angkas‘ rally this morning and the issue of LTFRB‘s newest advisory in cutting down the allocation of Angkas 27,000 Biker slots from 27,000 down to 10,000, here is Angkas’ appeal letter to LTFRB in verbatim:
December 20, 2019
ATTN: PMGEN Antonio N. Gardiola, Jr.
Chairman of the Motorcycle Taxi Technical Working Group
Land Transportation Franchising & Regulatory Board
Dear Mr. Chairman,
I would like to respectfully submit this appeal regarding the new provisions of the motorcycle taxi pilot.
We hope that you can take into consideration some these critical safety concerns that may endanger the
commuting public. Outlined below are the major provisions we have found problematic:
1. Setting an arbitrary cap of 30,000 bikers for Metro Manila and 9,000 for Metro Cebu, split evenly
among competitors.
a. People will switch back to habal-habal as demand far outstrips supply. This is exactly
what happened when Angkas suspended operations the last 2 times. Passengers who can’t
book Angkas often turn to habal-habal instead.
b. Habal-habal is unmonitored, uninsured, and lack proper gear and training. Every Angkas
ride that becomes habal-habal increases the risk of commuters accidents and fatalities.
2. Splitting the cap of 30,000 evenly across 3 players, 2 of which are untested with real on-ground
experience.
a. If safety is the highest priority, then prudence necessitates more bikers proportionally be
allowed to operate with the one with a track record.
b. Other plays should be allowed, but must ramp up at a more steady pace until they can
properly prove both their operational teams and app platforms are truly functional at
scale. Angkas took 3 years to learn how to manage 27,000 bikers, yet the new players are
expected to handle 10,000 in 3 months.
c. One of the players, Joy Ride, claims to already have 7,000 bikers fully accredited to
operate after only 3 months of operating. While this does not mean they are less safe, the
TWG should be more cautious given these seemingly lower standards. While Angkas has
trained 117,000 in 3 years, it has failed over 70% of that to ensure very high and
stringent standards resulting to only 27,000 remaining bikers to date.
d. 17,000 Angkas bikers will lose their livelihoods. Even if these bikers transfer to the 2
new players, neither of those have access to over 3 million app downloads to ensure
continuous demand for their services. Angkas has over the years spent millions in
marketing to bring users and earned their trust.
3. Omission of Angkas’ proposal to require participating companies to have dedicated Emergency
Response Team with proper qualifications.
a. Angkas’ own 24/7 team has 48 members guarantees a response of 20 minutes to any
location in Metro Manila and Cebu.
b. Everyone underwent a week-long course certified by a member of the Philippine College
of Emergency Medicine and a veteran emergency response trainer with certifications
from the AHA (American Heart Association), PHTLS (Prehospital Trauma Life
Support), Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (San Diego), MEDIC First Aid (USA), and
Emergency Telecommunicator (911).
4. Omission of Angkas’ proposal for participants to build their network of partner hospitals and
doctors.
a. Angkas has a network of 8-affiliate hospitals and 12 on-call doctors who ensure quality
care at properly managed costs. These hospitals ensure no down payment is required
from any Angkas passenger or biker involved in an accident before care is administered,
and the on-call doctors ensure a high standard of care is maintained to minimize further
stress to the victim.
b. This ensures that accident victims endure minimal stress during recovery, and that post-
accident care has the least risk of escalating into something worse later on.
5. Omission of Angkas’ proposal to setup a fund to advance accident payments and the need to shift
to working with insurance consortium (PAMI or SCCI) for PUVs to financially support accidents,
given the limitations of Angkas’ current sole provider (Malayan Insurance).
a. New players have moved to sign deals with Malayan given their known affiliation with
Angkas as its insurer, despite Angkas’ data showing that a significant portion of claims
take up to 5 months to process, and generally only 60% of incidents have been claimable
due to various documentation-related issues.
b. Even with consortium insurance, payments processing often takes 5 days, so a fund is
still required to advance payments.
c. The status quo has resulted in Angkas practically self-insuring and setting aside sufficient
working capital to cover costs for accidents, so any new participant must apprised as able
to support this financially. ‘
d. It should be noted that any new provider whose track record is lower than a 99.997%
safety record should expect an even higher financial burden. The risks in allowing a new
player to start immediately with 10,000 bikers are extremely high.
6. Arbitrary capping of motorcycle engine max to 150cc.
a. About 30% of our bikers own a bike between 155-200cc, yet proportionally, they
represent a smaller portion of accidents. This means that the LTFRB is in fact reducing
the safest bikes on the road with this rule.
b. These bikes tend to be driven by some of our safest and best bikers – usually as a result
of their higher earnings from having a proven track record of safely serving passengers
better.
c. Higher cc bikes also tend to come with better features related to passenger comfort and
safety that make the overall experience more pleasant.
There are a few more minor points that we would like to discuss, but the above represent most of the
major concerns we have about the current provisions.
Hoping for your kind reconsideration and review of these. Your office may kindly contact me at +63 918.872 8738 for a schedule at your convenience. Thank you!
George Royeca
Head of Regulatory and Public Affairs
Angkas
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