Modes of public transport often rise according to public need. Most aren’t actually the result out of long-term planning; they come as a reaction to what is already in place.
Especially in the old days, there were no such things as traffic count or Passenger-Per-Hour-Per-Day studies. Along with route identification, transport standardization came only after the growing popularity of many destinations and trending ways of getting there.
Jeepneys rose as an ingenious transportation from surplus military vehicles after World War II. Tricycles answered narrow roads in the provinces. Tourist transport services came in response to increasing numbers of visitors to the country. Transport Network Vehicle Service (TNVS) became a public transport mode after authorities regularized the entry of online transport platform players.
These days, with the country still reeling from the oil crisis situation arising from the Middle East conflict, there is a felt need to recognize new modes of public transport. Due to rising fuel costs, many people are coming up with practical solutions to move around, often leaving their privately-owned vehicles at home.
One such solution is carpooling, where several individuals share a ride in a neighbor’s car while pitching in a little amount for fuel instead of each one driving his or her own vehicle. This way, they still get to enjoy the comforts of traveling a private car with friends instead of being with strangers in a crowded bus or jeepney.
However, there is a little problem with this arrangement: carpooling is not yet an authorized denomination of public transport.
Public transport denominations are classified by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) under Department Order 2017-011, otherwise known as the Omnibus Guidelines on the Planning and Identification of Public Road Transportation Services and Franchise Issuance.
The order defines and categorizes public transport denominations such as buses, jeepneys, taxis, UV Express, TNVS, tourist transport, school transport services, shuttle services and even tricycles. Only these modes of public transport may be granted franchises to legally operate. Without franchises, vehicles operating as public transport are considered illegal or colorum.
Back in the day when I was still an official in a national transportation office, I personally led multi-agency teams in apprehending and impounding colorum vehicles across four regions, their owners penalized with hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions of pesos.
But today is a different time. The war in the Middle East doesn’t look like it’s going to end soon and even if it does, there is no guarantee that fuel prices will go down at once, given the massive destruction of the oil infrastructure in the war-torn countries.
In response to the situation, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. himself has declared a State of National Energy Emergency to implement energy conservation measures.
Carpooling is a sensible and realistic way to conserve energy, aside from potentially decongesting traffic and helping people save money. We therefore suggest that it be studied by our forward-looking transport authorities and, with proper safeguards and operational standards, be considered as a public transport denomination to help mitigate the current oil crisis.
We hope that with its culture of innovation, the DOTr and its attached agencies like the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board will readily come up with the appropriate regulations and accept carpooling as a new denomination of public transport.