Tuesday 1 February 2011

Increased Jeep Fare

Just a few weeks ago, I blogged about the increased taxi fares that has already been implemented in many taxis in the Philippines. I've actually ridden one of these "receipt-enabled" cabs (What in hell will you use a cab receipt for? Transportation reimbursement? Tax breaks? Toilet paper?) and the difference is substantial; a cab ride to Global City used to cost me around P80.00 - P90.00 (USD 2.00), and last Saturday, it went up to P130.00 (USD 3.00). Multiply that over a week, and soon enough commuting becomes a big fat burden.

Now jeeps are going to be increasing fares (again). This will be implemented tomorrow, February 2.

Jeeps are the staple of Filipino commuting; cheap, highly abundant, and lets one FULLY experience the country, danger and all. The usual rate is P7.00 for the first 4 kilometers and then it adds up after every click or so. I'm not sure how the drivers calculate, but it is still a very cheap mode of transportation. Another peso might not hit some hard, but it would definitely affect other demographics in our country. In the article mentioned here, one would note that not only is petrol price increase blamed but also "operating expenses".

I sure hope they spend some of the extra money actually INSTALLING BRAKE LIGHTS, WORKING SIGNAL LIGHTS, and as much as many jeep drivers/operators do not care to admit, some form of VENTILATION would be nice as well, especially as jeeps turn into microwave ovens on rainy days when the plastic blinds are drawn.


Jay~

2 comments:

  1. Fares increasing doesn't surprise me any more than it usually does; however, I do hope they consider to raise the minimum wage because you just can't bear it how ordinary citizens cope up with this outrage.

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  2. Amen to that. The wages don't increase when virtually everything increases in price. Even cooking gas and electricity, and there seems to be no good reason for the increase. In fact, my electricity has gone up by a couple of hundred pesos, and I am home roughly 6-8 hours a day only. Very strange.

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