Passengers should provide contact details to drivers, conductors

MANILA, Philippines — Public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and conductors will be required to keep a record of their passengers for contact tracing when mass transport operations resume under the general community quarantine, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said yesterday.

LTFRB chairman Martin Delgra III said all franchise-holding PUVs, including buses, jeepneys, tricycles, taxis and TNVS, need to record the name and contact number of each passenger as a precautionary measure against the threat of COVID-19.

 “This applies not only to buses, but to all transport systems,” Delgra said during the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday.

 The LTFRB has also appealed to passengers to keep their own records of the details of the PUVs they ride.

Aside from these, the agency said it was also mulling over cashless payments for PUVs like taxis, a system already in use among vehicles hailed by mobile applications like the TNVS. This, according to Delgra, would make contact tracing much easier since it keeps a travel history within the app.

Public mass transportation is still barred under the modified enhanced community quarantine currently implemented in Metro Manila and several other high-risk areas.

Mass transport is expected to resume only upon the scaling down of restrictions under the general community quarantine, but under limited capacity with a maximum of 50 percent.

Several local governments, however, have approved the use of tricycles within the bounds of their cities following the go-signal from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.