The Cebu City Hall will initially register six of its vehicles on the Uber platform for official and exclusive use of its employees to find out if the pilot would make the city government more efficient in the use of its resources, save on expenses, reduce its carbon footprint, and help ease city traffic.
The program, named uberGOV, will not be available to the general public.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Uber Philippines general manager Laurence Cua launched the partnership on Nov. 24 in Cebu City Hall.
If the uberGOV pilot delivers on its objectives, more city government vehicles might be added and other government units and agencies will be encouraged to follow.
If one car makes three to four trips during the day instead of just being parked and their drivers idle, the pilot program theoretically should make unnecessary the purchase of 400 cars, for instance, for the exclusive use of 400 individual government officials only.
“Easily, those 400 government vehicles can do 3,500 official trips for the day. This means the government does not have to procure, maintain, and insure as many vehicles for the use of its employees. More government employees can enjoy the use of these government vehicles.
“With fewer and better utilized vehicles on the road, traffic in the city could improve,” said Cua.
Uber has been in Cebu since December 2015 and has 700 drivers in the city to date, mostly part-time.
Through this partnership with Uber, the Cebu City government can digitally audit and review the trips that the registered vehicles have taken, track their location, and manage both the drivers and the vehicles in real time.
“We thank Mayor Osmeña for embracing technology to improve governance and make the city better. Uber is always ready to be a partner of the government to keep the city moving forward,” Cua said.
