(Part 1)
The Philippine jeepney has come a long way.
It began as a makeshift vehicle put together from spare parts of the military service “jeep” left by American troops who left the Philippines after the end of World War II in 1945. Because the jeeps were too expensive to ship back to the United States, the American military authorities disposed of them locally by selling those in poor running condition, and giving away those engines of which have seen better times.
Enterprising Filipinos took the jeeps, overhauled their engines, painted them in a range of colors, and converted them to limited space transportation vehicles. Since there was an acute shortage in public transportation in Manila and its suburbs during the months following the end of the war, local commuters welcomed the makeshift vehicles as temporary solutions to the public transportation problem.
Alas! What was meant to be a temporary remedy became more or less a permanent one. The early individual manufacturers of the converted jeeps were replaced by a cottage industry that manufactured sturdier models with bodies made from galvanized iron sheets, roofs made from army surplus canvas, windshields from scrap safety glass taken from abandoned cars, and second hand diesel engines from junk shops.
An innovation was introduced—the passenger entrance was located at the rear of the vehicle.
The jeep had limited seating capacity—four at the back, and one in the front.
A passenger can also take the front seat beside the driver, unless the wife of the driver happens to be riding beside her husband, or more specifically, keeping a watchful eye on him. When she’s on board, she takes over the driver’s task of collecting passenger fares. More often than not, she holds on to the box containing the money.
Since a jeepney driver is a daily wage earner, the driver turns over his days’ earnings to his wife, leaving nothing for the morrow, not even coins for change. As a result, one would often see a sign prominently displayed inside the jeepney with the phrase “barya lang po sa umaga” [pay your fare in coins].
Even as these converted jeeps were somehow already getting “mass produced,” each one was still individually painted, with no two vehicles painted alike. The traditional paint job was eventually accompanied by tacky decorations ranging from feathers to plastic triangular ornaments, to animal-shaped hood ornaments made from coated aluminum.
Small metal signboards the size of a pencil box, which indicate the route taken by the vehicles, were displayed on the windshield, wedged between the inside of the windshield and what appears to be its weather strip.
On rainy days and nights, a long translucent roll of industrial grade plastic mounted at the top of both sides of the jeep are untied and rolled down to serve as protective curtains. There was nothing to cover the rear entrance, though. Only one side of the windshield, the one infront of the driver, had a windshield wiper.
A sort of dashboard can be seen in most jeeps, although the speedometer was more of a decoration than anything else, and the driver measured his fuel supply by inserting a long stick into the fuel tank beside him. Depending on how high the wet mark on the stick is located, the driver is able to calculate when he needs to gas up.
By the 1950s, the jeeps were called “auto-calesas” and they carried license plates bearing the letters “AC” on them. Despite their exposure to dust and street dirt, the auto-calesas were generally tidy inside and outside.
The 1960s saw assembly lines producing bigger versions of the auto-calesa, and these expanded versions were officially called “public utility jeepneys” as seen in their license plates indicating the letters “PUJ”for all to see. These larger versions could accommodate ten passengers at the back, and two in front.
During rush hours, many jeepney drivers allowed passengers to hang on to a handrail at the rear of the jeepney and stand at the entrance steps of the vehicle while the jeep is in motion. These passengers, referred to as “sabit” [attachment], were still required to pay the full fare.
Sarao Motors was the leading assembly plant of jeepneys in the 1960s and the 1970s. Later on, stiff competition came from a company called Mel-Ford, which operated an assembly plant northeast of Manila.
In time, these PUJs were simply called “jeepneys” or “jeeps,” an obvious derivative from the American military jeepney.
Although the 1960s jeepney no longer retained the original features of its predecessor, its radiator grill still looked like the one found in its old. mechanical ancestor.
When the jeepney is to be used by its owner or driver for a private family trip or similar journey, a small, metal door is affixed to the rear entrance of the jeepney and kept closed. The door is about two feet high. Painted on the door are the words “private” and the name of the family which owns the jeepney. It was widely believed that displaying the family name anywhere on the jeep discouraged married jeepney drivers from flirting with women.
Prior to the martial law era, the jeepney competed with public utility buses, taxicabs, tricycles, and even calesas, for passengers.
The monetary aspect of the jeepney business is quite simple. An investor buys a jeepney. After he obtains a franchise from the government transportation office, he becomes an “operator.” A driver is designated to drive the jeepney for a specified number of hours. At the end of the day’s driving, the driver pays the operator a fixed sum of money called a “boundary.”
Expenses for fuel are for the account of the driver. A barker at a predesignated jeepney stands coax passengers to board the jeepneys, which wait for their turn in a line. The barker is paid the equivalent of a passenger’s full fare for each filled jeepney he dispatches. (To be continued)