Taxi Drivers apply to Grab, Uber as earnings decrease

A huge percentage of taxi drivers already have plans to switch to Uber and Grab in hopes of better income, based on our own survey in the past weeks.

taxi philippines yugatech • Taxi Drivers apply to Grab, Uber as earnings decrease

36 out of the 55 or around 65% of the taxi drivers we have conversed with during my daily morning trips have expressed their interest in applying to become a driver for said Transport Network Vehicle Service companies. Driver “Ernesto” is keen to hop in as early as next month, citing declining profits as Uber and Grab become the more preferred service by the riding public. “Yung kinakaltas sa’min na boundary e tumataas na, pero nalulugi kami sa hina ng pasada namin sa kalsada. Tingin ko kikita ako ng malaki kung magddrive ako for Uber.

taxi philippines tnvs survey yugatech 2 • Taxi Drivers apply to Grab, Uber as earnings decrease

Taxi Driver “Randy”, on the other hand, sees the opportunity with Uber and Grab as a better alternative. “Tingin ko kasi kung may opportunity para sa akin na makapagdrive for Uber, e hindi naman ako magrereklamo. Mahirap na din kasi kumuha ng pasahero ngayon sa taxi lalo na’t may Uber nanaman.

Other drivers, on the other hand, lamented the abundance of Transport Network Vehicles (TNVs) on the road. Driver “Charlie” went on to lash out against TNVS companies during my trip with him. “Dapat lang talaga na nasuspend sila kasi pinahihirapan lang nila kaming mga taxi drivers. Hindi naman kasi kami lagi yung [dahilan kung] bakit kami nagagalit din sa mga customer — minsan may naisakay ako na ang sabi niya e sa Tandang Sora (Quezon City) lang siya, pero pinalagpas pa niya at gustong ihatid pa siya sa Congressional [Avenue].

A few are seeing Uber and Grab as not competitors but rather better vehicles to look up as a model on, and do not see themselves transferring in the future. Driver “Bryan” feels like it’s a challenge for him to step up and do better things. “Sa driver din yan minsan, parang umaasa nalang sila sa kung anong ‘andyan para kumita. ‘Pag alam kong kailangang magkapera, pupunta ako sa mga alam kong kukunin ako para ihatid ko sila ng maayos. Tatambay ako dun sa mga lugar na alam kong may demand sa taxi ko.

This survey was done during weekday mornings of July to September with a route of Sandiganbayan to MRT3 in EDSA. This may not be the overall sentiment, but we can see that drivers are really feeling the TNVs as a stiff rival in providing transport for the masses.

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12 Comments
  1. A lot of taxi drivers in my town did the switch, taxis are pretty outdated now.

  2. pls can someone answer me po if where to apply uber or grab..Thank u so much po sa sasagot..God Bless po

  3. The problem is with Delgra because that stupid sh1t doesn’t ride taxi’s and he still defends these taxi drivers because of his connections who are big fleet owners of taxi’s. The drivers are also to blame because they are choosy and rude to their customers.

  4. papasukin na ng mga kanser na driver ng taxi ang TNVP

  5. does Uber and Grab have fixed salaries for their drivers? If yes, perhaps that’s what the old cab companies needs to be

    • They don’t have fix rates, it depends on the number of trips they accumulate (E.g. Uber) for a week (2 quota every week one on weekdays and the other on weekends). If Drivers reached their quota, they will receive incentives depending on their performance. Some uber drivers told me that they can get more than 30k a month inclusive of incentives and payout for their total trips.

  6. Please add English translations to Tagalog parts of your articles! Easy thing to do if you don’t want to exclude all foreigners in PH.

  7. This is the result of Mr. Delgra’s move to increase taxi fares. He thought that raising the taxi fare will give its drivers a fair play in transportation. I can not tell the error margin of the survey but with this random survey, one can say that taxi business is in the brink of bankruptcy.

    Many factors can be attributed to taxis’ failure. One is the conduct of drivers. As an example in one of your trips, the driver complains about the passenger’s change of trip. He should not act like that since the passenger is paying. That’s one advantage of taxis over TNVS. One can change his/her trip during travel.

    Another is taxi drivers refusal to take passengers for 1 reason or another. Naturally, the riding public will then tend to take Uber or Grab to take them where they wanted to since they don’t want to be denied again by taxis. It’s really frustrating when cab drivers refuse to take you (then Mr. Delgra urges the public to exert their rights? May friction na between the driver and passenger, malamang baka mag-away pa yung 2 during the trip. Hindi yan naisip ni Mr. Delgra. Sabagay, walang common sense yun).

    With all due respect to taxi drivers, I think its high time to reconsider your ways of treating the riding public. Treat the public right. Don’t refuse passengers wherever their destination is. Don’t ask too much and let the passenger give you extra for good service. And be polite always. It’s your loss if you don’t make it up.

  8. para sakin mas ok tlga ang grab/uber
    – meron silang app para mag book ng ride, mas mahal kesa sa taxi (depende sa ibook na car), pero atleast fixed rate, at wala ka sa tabing kalsada at ngalay na kakapara ng taxi
    – bago ang mga sasakyan, max of 5yrs old lang daw ang pede na car sa uber, then byebye na, so by that, we would know na sariwa pa ang car na sasakyan mo
    – may pagkakakilanlan ang mga driver, you can leave a comment pa

    ang mahirap lang nmn dito, malaki ata ang lagay ng mga TAXI sa LTFRB, kaya nmn maski sila na itong nilalangaw, sila pa itong maingay at may ganang mang-kaso

  9. The boundary system – that’s the problem. Greedy taxi operators, aka scum of the planet as they demonstrated in the recent and sadly successful attempts to extort from Uber, squeeze the life out of their drivers by imposing ridiculous boundaries to meet. They scrimp on proper screening of drivers and vehicle maintenance all in the name of profit. You’d think dadami ang gusto maging taxi driver with the fare hike recently approved by LTFRB right? Noooo. Because tinaas din ang boundary. So the taxi operators pocket the increase and the drivers and passengers both suffer. Buti na lang may Uber and Grab!!! But seriously taxi drivers should be prepared to change their attitude and mindset. Unlike taxis where passengers are reluctant to report erring drivers because they have no one reliable to report to, Uber and Grab passengers are quite diligent in reporting erring drivers.

  10. Dapat higpitan ng grab at uber ang pagbigay ng license samahan ng psychology test kung kailangan. Masisira ang business nila sa mga arogante at manyak na ugali ng mga taxi drivers. Pinalagpas ng gobyerno ang mga ganoong tao kaya nasira ang taxi image.

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