100,000 More Grab Vehicles to Hit the Road in Coming Weeks
(SPOT.ph) Booking a Grab has been near impossible these past few months, so much so that desperate passengers have resorted to boarding Lalamove transport vehicles just to get to their destination.
Now, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has greenlit the registration of 100,000 more cars and motorcycle taxis as transport network vehicle services under Grab Philippines to keep up with the surge in passenger demand, they announced on Friday, February 3.
This initial roll-out of new registrations comes after Grab chief executive officer Anthony Tan’s promise of 500,000 new job opportunities for Filipinos, as made during a meeting at Malacañan Palace with President Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos on February 2.
Tan’s proposal to remove the cap on transport network vehicle services (TNVS) isn’t something the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is too keen on, however.
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Slowly but surely for Grab rollout
“So, initially, 100,000 and increasing further in three months’ time. We may increase the number until such time that the number of TNVS matches the needs of the riding public,” LTFRB Chair Teofilo Guadiz III said in a statement on Friday. “100,000 is the initial, hindi naman natin bibiglain lahat ‘yan to prevent saturation in the market.”
To become a TNVS franchisee, one must own a professional driver’s license and sit through a 15-hour seminar on road safety. Other requirements will be announced in two memorandum circulars slated for release soon.
Tan is also looking to expand TNVS franchises in Davao, Cebu, and Iloilo, with particular focus on penetrating the motorcycle taxi space. He reiterated Grab’s call for lawmakers to legalize the operation of motorcycle taxis beyond the pilot study, which has been ongoing since 2019.
“That’s why I’m in a hurry. If we can roll this out as quickly as possible—and I know the way Grab moves, they move very, very quickly—because you’ve done it so many times before. In the scale, you don’t have to scale it. You’ve scaled it already,” Marcos was quoted as telling Tan.
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