Rep. Sarah Elago of Kabataan party-list raised a petition to the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board to suspend its point-to-point policy for UV Express units that will start next week.
Elago shared a screenshot of the petition or House Resolution 2587 on Facebook on May 29.
“Kabataan, Makabayan, urge LTFRB to suspend MC 2019-025 on point-to-point policy for UV express until a thorough study on routes and an impact assessment are done to ensure public, commuters’ welfare over moneyed, profiteering interests,” she said in the caption.
FILED: HR 2587-KABATAAN, Makabayan, urge LTFRB to suspend MC 2019-025 on point-to-point policy for UV express until a…
Posted by Sarah Elago on Wednesday, May 29, 2019
The LTFRB’s recent Memorandum Circular 2019-025 requires UV Express vehicles to ply a terminal-to-terminal or point-to-point basis only, prohibiting the dropoff and pickup of passengers between the designated stops.
Terminals of UV Express vans, however, are usually several kilometers apart from each other and passengers just get picked up and dropped off along assigned routes similar to how buses and jeepneys operate.
Moreover, the designated unloading and loading bays of public utility vehicles are confusing even to regular commuters.
Such complaints were aired by commuters on social media.
Lawyer Ariel Inton, a former LTFRB board member, suggested that the agency should first address the concerns raised by the commuters before implementing the new scheme.
“A compromise solution for this is the LTFRB should designate loading and unloading points in between the origin and destination of the UV Express units particularly in areas that have high passenger demand,” Inton said.
The point-to-point or P2P policy was once implemented in 2005, but was revised in 2009 to allow more pickups and dropoffs.
The vehicles were then allowed to pick up and drop off passengers within a 2-kilometer radius from the end points specified in their franchises.
The LTFRB cited the increase of vans with expired franchises that are not following the routes stated in their contracts as its reason for going back to the previous system.
“The LTFRB has observed that numerous UV Express Services are in breach of the terms and conditions of their franchise, leading to the rampant practice of loading and unloading of passengers in between their origin and destination, prolonging the turn around travel time between destinations and making it very difficult on the part of the enforcers to implement the service.”
