Taxi owners to pay more fees

Thursday, June 23, 2011

ADDITIONAL expenses are up for taxi operators and drivers who would calibrate their meters to the newly approved flag down rates in the Cordillera.

Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) Regional Director Celine Claver said franchise holders should be prepared for the additional expenses they will have to incur as they enforce the new flag down rates.

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The Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) in Manila recently approved a P35 flag down rate for the first 400 meters and additional P2 for the succeeding 200 meters, or one minute and 30 seconds waiting time.

Claver said the board has seen cheaper expenses for taxi operators and drivers in the Cordillera as compared to Manila operators, citing taxis in the region do not use air conditioning and only ferry their passenger short distances, allowing them more passengers.

She said several conditions have to be met by franchisees before they could avail of the new rates.

Conditions

The board decision states all taxi operators should have individually applied for an increase of rate and paid the filing fee of P510 per case number.

Also, all taxi cabs must be equipped either with meters with built-in receipt issuer or with printers capable of printing receipts directly from the meter.

However, Claver said majority of the taxis in the region do not have receipt issuing meters that cost around P7,000 to P14,000.

This is because LTFRB-Cordillera previously allowed operators with existing meters to issue receipts manually even if there is an existing memorandum order issued two years ago, requiring them to avail of the new meters to help out taxi operators from the high costs of each new receipt-issuing meter, she said.

But this time, Claver said, the LTFRB will be strict with this requirement before calibrating and resealing the meters to the new flag down rate.

After the 15-day publication period of the new flag down rate, taxi franchisees should also have their meters tested and resealed by the LTFRB and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda)-accredited calibrators and will pay another sealing and testing fee of P500.

This brings the total additional expenses to be paid by operators at a minimum of P8,010 if they will have to get a new receipt-issuing meter, filing, sealing and testing fees.

The sealing and testing will also include the placing of a tamper-proof seals on the universal serial bus (USB) ports of the receipt-issuing meters, which according to Claver could be tampered simply by connecting to a computer with the special software.

"As an added precautionary measure, we will seal the USB port to prevent it from being tampered by taxis as we have observed they can easily be reprogrammed compared to the old non-receipt-issuing meter," she said.

She added that they will start to calibrate, seal and test meters on Monday with a projected date after publication requirement in July 4 starting with taxis with plate numbers ending in 1 following the number coding scheme of the city.

However, only 70 to 100 taxis will be accommodated by the LTFRB per day, which according to Claver will be on a first come first serve basis.

Reminders

As of the moment, Claver warned taxi operators and rivers not to impose the approved rates until the meter is sealed and sealed accordingly.

In the board decision, taxi drivers are also ordered to wear their proper uniforms and practice proper grooming.

Taxis should also not operate with defective taxi meters and engage in contracting passengers or overcharging of fares.

Drivers will not refuse any passenger nor ask them of their destination before boarding the taxi, the LTFRB reminded.

Rounding-up fares is also prohibited as drivers are required to bring enough change to give passengers their exact change.

In answer to non-issuance of receipts, taxi drivers are now required to issue receipts at all times regardless if passengers ask for it or not.

All these regulations should be strictly followed by taxi drivers as every violation is subject to a penalty of P2,500 per offense.

The DOTC has opened its hot line number 444-9938 for complaints against erring taxi drivers.