Motorcycle taxi Angkas on Sunday protested the new rules approved by an inter-agency Technical Working Group (TWG) which meant 17,000 riders on its platform will lose their jobs.

The Technical Working Group (TWG) on Motorcycle Taxi created by the Department of Transportation on Friday extended pilot implementation with two additional players ? JoyRide and Move It starting Monday to March 23, 2020.

The TWG allotted an overall cap of 39,000 registered bikers ?- 10,000 per Transport Network Company for Metro Manila and 3,000 bikers per TNC for Metro Cebu operations.

In a press briefing after thousands of its riders protested the move in a march from the Edsa Shrine to Kalayaan Avenue, George Royeca, chief transport advocate of Angkas questioned the move of the Land Transportation and Regulatory Board to remove their 17,000 riders.

“There’s no point to lower our cap and reallocate to untested players,” Royeca said.

“What is the basis of the 17,000 and the 30,000 cap?,” he added.

Royeca expects a “very big shortage” of Angkas riders due to the new rules.

Angkas serves an average of 30,000 passengers per day.

“I believe there are irregularities in the TWG,” Royeca said.

He added that the risks in allowing a new player to start immediately with 10,000 bikers are “extremely high.”

“If safety is the highest priority, then prudence necessitates more bikers proportionally be allowed to operate with the one with a track record,” Royeca said.

He noted that any new provider whose track record is lower than a 99.997 percent safety should expect an even higher financial burden.

Angkas said his company took three years to learn how to manage 27,000 bikers, but new players are expected to handle 10,000 in three months.

”While Angkas has trained 117,000 in 3 years, it has failed over 70 percent of that to ensure very high and stringent standards resulting to only 27,000 remaining bikers to date,” Royeca said.

He said 17,000 Angkas bikers will lose their livelihoods.

“Even if these bikers transfer to the two new players, neither of those have access to over three million app downloads to ensure continuous demand for their services,”Royeca said. DMS