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DOTr lauds AF Payments’ decision to give away 125K free Beep cards
By TED CORDERO,GMA NewsThe Department of Transportation (DOTr) has welcomed the decision of AF Payments Inc. to issue 125,000 free Beep cards to EDSA Busway commuters.
“We thank AFPI for seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and for considering the plight of our commuters who have just started to rebuild back their lives after a series of strict quarantine measures that put pressure both on their social lives and livelihoods. For them, every centavo counts,” the DOTr said in a statement late Monday.
AFPI announced on Monday its shareholders and business groups have donated funds needed to pay for up to 125,000 free cards
while the company is studying to upgrade the automated fare collection system at EDSA Busway using QR ticket via paper or mobile phone.“We appreciate the plan of AFPI to set aside the prospect of profit for the meantime, to answer the call of need from our commuters and to give them free beep cards until a QR-based electronic ticketing system becomes operational,” the DOTr said.
The DOTr has been consistent in its call to give the Beep cards for free for commuters in the EDSA Busway as it mandated the enforcement of a cashless automatic fare collection scheme on public utility buses route starting October 1, 2020 as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The department however, suspended the mandatory use of Beep cards at the EDSA Busway starting Monday, October 5 “until the issue is resolved” with provider AFPI.
President Rodrigo Duterte also ordered the DOTr to make Beep cards free
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The DOTr clarified that the 2015 public-private partnership program involving AFPI, which replaced the old magnetic card-based ticketing system in the three light railway lines in Metro Manila with the Beep card “is an issue best reserved for discussion at a later date, with the parties involved.”
“Let us first focus on our goal to make the commuting experience of passengers on the EDSA Busway convenient and affordable, in the light of compassion,” it said.
“As for the use of a QR code-based electronic ticketing system on the EDSA Busway, allow us to point out that the system has always been one of our options for cashless transactions. In fact, we have considered the use of this long before the outbreak of the pandemic,” it added.
The Transportation department said that a QR system will not be as tedious to implement on the EDSA Busway, “as the facilities and the know-how for it is readily available.”
“With the use of a smartphone app and/or through online, passengers of vessels can now buy virtual tickets. As this is a contactless technology, commuters are best assured of proper social distancing needed to prevent transmission of the coronavirus,” the DOTr said.
Citing a study by Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data, it said that there were approximately 74 million smartphone users in the Philippines, and it has continued to rise since 2015.
The research company forecasts that by 2025, there would be around 90 million smartphone users in the Philippines, according to the DOTr.
“Thus, we believe that the use of QR technology for electronic ticketing on the EDSA Busway remains one viable option for commuters,” it said.
The DOTr noted that the use of QR codes in the Philippine Ports Authority’s (PPA) ticketing system should be more than enough to prove that the QR code technology will now form part of the “new normal.”
“Finally, we also wish to note that the government welcomes proposals from other automatic fare collection system (AFCs) providers, as long as their systems are ready for integration, and will not place additional charge or burden to commuters,” the DOTr said. —KG, GMA News