LTFRB fines Uber, Grab P5 million each for violating order

July 11, 2017

The Land Transportation Franchising  and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) fined Grab and Uber P5 million each for not following their terms and conditions as transport network companies in the show cause order hearing on Tuesday. LTFRB chair Martin Delgra III said passengers of Grab and Uber must be able to see the  case number issued by LTFRB in the application and the two firms must screen all applicants as  drivers before endorsing it to them. Grab and Uber continued accepting drivers despite an LTFRB order on July 2016 suspending applications for new drivers. This means the drivers they have been using since then were in effect “colorum”. LTFRB board member Aileen Lizada said there are 18 colorum vehicles apprehended from Grab and 12 from Uber from January to April 2017. Lizada said Grab and Uber "may accredit but must not give the partner operator booking apps". Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu said: "In all honesty everyone we accepted since July are still colorum. They remain on the road. Because there is demand that is needed to be met, we let them." Cu said there are 28,000 active drivers nationwide. Grab  Public Affairs Manager Leo Gonzales said 75 percent of this is in Metro, Manila Uber said they have the almost the same number of units as Grab operating nationwide. The two companies admitted they continued accepting drivers' applications despite the LTFRB order. "We have continued accepting vehicles on the platform even after the moratorium...because if we stop accepting we might as well should have closed down the business because as mentioned to you before in the previous meeting that drivers come in and also fall out,” said Cu. Uber said they continued accepting application because it takes time to read the documents. It takes two months for an operator to complete the application. Grab said they need at least 5,000 to 6,000 drivers due to high demand and 5,000 to 7,000 to Uber. Cu admitted there has been a "negligence" on the part of Grab and said the decision of the LTFRB was " justified". "We're actually quite happy with the decision it's not a cancellation. It’s not a suspension We as a transport network company as Grab along with our Grab partners will be able to continue providing quality service that we provide to our partners", Cu said. Lizada said LTFRB, Grab and Uber will "sit down" next week to discuss the issue. LTFRB said U-Hop is exempted from the penalty for successfully complying with the terms and conditions. (Alanna Ambi/DMS)