Carlos Arnaldo
The e-jeepney: To get around Makati fast, quiet and cheap!
Choy Arnaldo
Manila
February 2, 2010
 
 
At 8 pesos a jeepney ride from the corner of Jupiter along Makati Avenue to Landmark transportation in the city of Makati could be a profitable deal. Taxi drivers love Makati for its lazy-to-walk passengers who take a 40 pesos ride and leave 50 pesos, a very ample tip. They start the next passenger at the meter count of 30 pesos. And this frequency piles up at the end of the day. A hundred short rides give a better return than 10 long ones in bad traffic.
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Lady Passenger
 
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Competing
 
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E-jeepney
 

But now the e-jeepney. This may be old hat to Makati residents, but it is new and refreshing to Makati visitors. Mayor Jojo Binay (see box) last November started two short e-jeepney routes serving two major residential routes, one circling Salcedo Village (Makati Ave, Citibank, HV de la Costa), the other going through Legaspi Village (Landmark, Makati Med and De la Rosa). The jeeps are electrically powered and run silently and smoothly down the streets – no smoke belching! The motors are imported from China which also uses electric vehicles for city services, like police and post office. All other parts of the jeepney are locally manufactured. They re-power from the city’s electrical sources. Drivers are paid staff of the municipal office.
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E jeep Driver
 
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Citibank
 
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Haping Hapi
 
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Moveover
 

No, this is not a business for the city of Makati. All rides are free! One may, however, make a contribution. And many residents are generous, dropping in 5 or 10 pesos according to their’ distance. Almost everyone leaves at least one peso. Few have taken a ride for free. This seems to be their way of saying, please keep this service!

At first it would seem there would be competition from the other jeepney companies, but none of them ply this route which is off the main thoroughfares except for Makati Avenue. There could be some guff from taxis, but they usually have their regular customers doing big weekly elephantine shopping at Landmark or Glorieta.
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Hintay jeep
 
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Landmark
 
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Makati Med
 

It is a simple and modest but well appreciated service in this busy city of Makati which at least in this downtown area has very much become a walking city. As some of the walks can be long, the e-jeepney fills in a serious need especially when one is loaded down with shopping.

Bravo to Mayor Binay!

About Makati’s Mayor

Jejomar Binay was born a war time baby on November 11, 1942, meaning that he learned life the hard way and had a tough time finishing school. A law graduate of the University of the Philippines, he was also a senior executive fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Under martial law, Binay was jailed for several months. After his release, he continued his work both as a human rights lawyer and as an active participant in the pro-democracy movement.

Immediately after the February 1986 Revolution, Jojo Binay was named officer-in-charge of the municipality of Makati and with the conversion of Makati into a highly-urbanised city in 1995 by Republic Act 7854, Mayor Binay became the first Chief Executive of the City Government of Makati, now ‘the unrivalled premier financial centre of the Philippines, the undisputed leader in e-governance, and the acknowledged trend setter in public services.’
 
 

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Choy Arnaldo
Thu 4th February 2010
Paris
 

This is a comment emailed to me by a senior executive of an internationally-recognized conservation NGO:

"This is a good idea that should be propagated. with either local government funding, national government subsidies [outright cash, infrastructure to supply replacement batteries and battery-charging outlets, cash incentives to diesel pu jeepney operators to retire their units,etc], ngo participation, and corporate involvement [batteries, e-jeepneys, etc.]"