Public transport

Our poor commuters have been abandoned by the government. There they are waiting for rides that are not coming because drivers and operators are unable to afford the price of diesel.

The stupidity of it all is a report quoting unnamed government officials imploring the drivers to go out, ply their routes and perform a public service. The drivers are living hand to mouth in good times and are now out-of-pocket or abonado with current diesel pump prices.

They are better off planting camote back in their home provinces. Or doing any other kind of work that will bring home something to put food on the table. Drivers and commuters are being screwed by the government’s inability to do something, anything.

That’s the problem with our makeshift public transport system. It depends on thousands of small operators and drivers working to earn enough to pay a “boundary”, pay for diesel and hopefully enough left over to feed a family.

This makeshift arrangement dates back to the “liberation” days of the second world war.  It provided jobless Pinoys a livelihood for decades. The jeepney started as converted military surplus jeeps. It used to be called auto calesa. Painted in folk art, it became a Pinoy icon that we proudly exhibit in tourism fairs abroad.

The jeepney is a symbol of grassroots entrepreneurship like the sari sari store. A returning OFW proudly advertises his jeep as “Katas ng Saudi”. There is one problem: it isn’t what public transportation should be for a metropolis of over 12 million people.

The other problem is the fuel it uses. Diesel is imported or processed in a refinery from imported crude oil. It keeps us hostage to oil producers. We should have done something when the first oil crisis came to protect us from a crisis like this one.

Some government officials justified doing nothing much by saying the alternative, a government-run mass transit system, will have to be subsidized. With the jeepneys, bahala sila sa buhay nila. Besides, can you imagine how many more unemployed Pinoys there will be if the jeepneys are replaced?

So now we have this problem. Diesel price is approaching P100/liter. Jeepney, tricycle and bus drivers cannot afford the cost of fuel to move people around. Abandoning their routes is logical. Can’t squeeze blood out of turnips.

Some months ago during the pandemic when the public transport sector took a snooze, Endika Aboitiz and Freddie Tinga tried an experiment in Davao City using all-electric mini buses. They called their project COMET or Community Optimized Managed Electric Transport.

They have 52 COMETs in the Philippines: Davao - 7; Cebu - 9; CALABARZON - 4 and Manila – 32. They are looking at 250 units by yearend and a major rollout in the thousands by next year.

“Just to give credit where it is due, it was Endika who introduced us to Formula E engineers in Spain and their manufacturing partners in China. These groups were instrumental in the design, engineering, and production of our COMET minibuses,” Freddie said.

Endika and Freddie believe that the future of mass transport is not with fixed, heavy, expensive, long-term infrastructure projects. Nor is it about adding vehicles and carrying capacity.

Freddie explains: “It is about leveraging new technology to create light, flexible and disruptive solutions that address current traffic and transport problems at the fraction of the price of the current transport infrastructure that is being envisioned…

“Given the demand for our COMET now, I believe the speed for our rollout will primarily depend on how much financing we can bring into the project. The goal for next year is to roll out at least 200 to 300 units a month, which given the size of the market and the severity of the transport problem is still a drop in the bucket.”

I asked Freddie how COMET’s cost of operation compares with diesel powered jeepneys.

“Jeepneys on the average have a mileage of 5.5kms per liter. With Diesel costing P92.00 per liter, the cost per km = P16.72.

“Modernized” Euro4 Jeepneys with aircon have a mileage of 3.2 kms per liter. With Diesel costing P92.00 per liter, this means that cost per km = P28.75.

“The COMET motor consumes 290 watts per kilometer. The COMET aircon and electronics consume 2.3 kW per hour. Assuming the COMET travels 200 kms over 14 hours a day then the total electric consumption for the COMET will be about 450 watts per km. With electricity costs at P10.00 per kWh, this means the COMET cost per km = P4.50.

“So in other words we operate at about 1/6 the fuel cost of the Euro 4 diesel.”

Freddie explains further: “So what we have done is to price the COMET at cost, go into partnership with the jeepney operator by subsidizing part of the vehicle, and then sourcing financing for the balance.

“The jeepney operator puts in a very small down payment (in our case P200,000) and then we find a way to finance everything else. In return, we get a substantial cut of transport revenues, as well as the lion’s share of advertising/media revenues. We earn only if the jeepney operator earns.”

Freddie explained that in Davao, they had to overcome the negative bias that people associated with electric transport. The majority of vehicles out there were nothing more than jimmied up, glorified golf carts with long charge times and batteries dying after a year of use.”

The Davao project has been going on for over a year and a half. They get commercial clients in addition to the ad sponsorships.

“The important thing with Davao was to show that electric vehicles could operate the same number of hours, if not more, than their diesel counterparts.

“The COMET can, and should, and will take the place of the jeepneys, UV express and other similar forms of transport on the street today.”

More on the business models of COMET in a future column. We need this kind of innovative thinking to address this festering public transportation problem. Our mobility must be brought to the new tech age.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco