The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on Tuesday ordered Grab Philippines to submit pertinent records on how they compute the so-called “surge fees” and “short trip rides” schemes.
The board en banc, headed by chairman Teofilo Guadiz, instructed Grab Philippines to explain and show all documents related to the way they charge fees for certain ride distances, which is often pegged at P85.
It asked Grab how it arrived at the fare and ordered it to present the computation on “surge” fees in the next hearing on Jan. 12 at 10 a.m.
LTFRB initially scheduled a hearing on Dec. 13 where it asked Grab to explain and justify the alleged overcharging of passengers’ fare through the surge fee mechanism.
Atty. Ariel Inton, founding president of Lawyers for Commuters Safety and Protection, said the Grab officers should have brought with them the documents, knowing that they would be attending a hearing on the issue.
“On Dec. 13 scheduled hearing they failed to attend claiming COVID infection as a reason. Now that they are here, even without those documents they must explain and clarify this surge fee fiasco,” Inton said.
Inton asked the LTFRB to come out with its parameters on the surge fee as thousands of commuters are affected daily by Grab’s practice.
Grab Philippines, in a statement, thanked the LTFRB for the opportunity to clarify key questions on its transport business’ pricing mechanisms.
The company said it was looking forward to further expounding on the matter in the next hearing.
“Despite the shortage of drivers, Grab is making every possible effort to support commuters and existing driver-partners—while still remaining compliant with the fare matrix of the LTFRB,” Grab Philippines said.
“Grab hopes to put to rest these unfounded allegations, and address the most important issue at hand: resolving the country’s long-standing transport challenges for every Filipino commuter,” it said.
