MANILA, Philippines — New motorcycle taxi service player Move It said drivers from Angkas who will be deactivated because of a cap on riders for each of the three players in the extended pilot test can join them.
Move It has around 2,500 registered drivers and 500 riders already on the road, Eric Torres, the company’s operations manager, said in an interview on the ABS-CBN News Channel Monday.
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He added the firm is processing 6,500 applicants before the end of the deadline to register riders next week.
Move It, Angkas and JoyRide—the three companies joining the second phase of the pilot test for motorcycle taxis—were allocated 10,000 slots each.
10,000 cap 'difficult to fill up'
“Given that we only have about three weeks to fill that up, it’s really a tough task to accomplish. But we are working on it. Realistically 10,000 would be difficult to fill up,” Torres said.
Angkas—the sole service provider in the initial six-month trial—said the cap imposed by the interagency technical working group would displace 17,000 of its riders, triggering angry responses from the public.
“The would be displaced Angkas drivers, well they’re welcome to apply to us. We are accepting riders, wherever they are from as long as they go through our application screening and onboarding process. Everybody is welcome,” Torres said.
Foreign ownership issues
The TWG claimed it only granted Angkas the “privilege” to provisionally operate as the company has not met the foreign ownership provisions for transportation carriers.
Philippine law requires that transportation carriers be at least 60% owned by Filipinos.
Citing records from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the TWG said Angkas is 99.996% owned by Singaporean Angeline Tham.
Indonesian ride-hailing service GoJek was earlier rejected by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board earlier rejected Indonesia ride-hailing service GoJek over the issue of ownership.
TWG added that Angkas committed other violations such as operating outside designated areas in the pilot run, collection of surge fees, as well as safety breaches like non-wearing of authorized safety gear.
Last week, JoyRide officials stressed they have no connection with anyone in the government but admitted the company sought the endorsement of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.
The lawmaker said he had endorsed JoyRide's bid to join the study to ensure a competitive market and avoid a monopoly of Angkas.
The TWG said Pimentel’s endorsement had no bearing on JoyRide being picked for the pilot test. — Gaea Katreena Cabico