(Eagle News) — The Department of Transportation is urging public utility vehicle operators to shift to the automatic fare collection system, noting that maintenance and processing fees for the same will be waived.
“We want to promote a ‘new normal’ in public transportation. And shifting to cashless, and contactless transactions is part of that,” Transportation Secretary Art Tugade said.
According to Tugade, cashless payments will be beneficial to operators since they “reduce pilferage, and other losses.”
With cashless payments, he said accounting is also automated, with ridership reports immediately provided to the operator for analysis of its operations as well.
Transportation Assistant Secretary for Road Transport and Infrastructure Mark De Leon, for his part, said the income of PUV operators can increase, with the charges of 4% to 6% of daily gross revenues removed by AF Payments, Inc.
“Before, if a bus operator earns P20,000 per bus a day, it translates to a P1,200 pesos transaction cost daily. This decision of AFPI to waive their fees will be a big boost to the PUV operators’ income,” De Leon said.
“The LTFRB is now in talks with bus operators who are eyeing to consolidate their operations into a consortium, and with that development, they would need AFCS to appropriately manage their fare collections, and share the income among themselves,” he added.
