Is inDrive’s Business Model Unfair? A Lawyer Thinks So

With areas like Commonwealth experiencing heavy traffic these days, and jeepney operators worried about losing their franchises because of the ongoing franchise consolidation process, the Philippines needs good transport solutions. Grab may be the dominant player, but alternative options like inDrive and JoyRide SuperTaxi aim to give competition to the transport-hailing market. InDrive has just gotten their approval from the LTFRB last month, yet some advocates are questioning its business model where both drivers and passengers can haggle fares.

–JoyRide Challenges Grab with SuperTaxi Service

In an article by the Daily Tribune, Lawyers for Commuters Safety and Protection (LCSP) Head Atty. Ariel Inton submitted a letter to LFTRB Chair Teofilo Guadiz III, questioning InDrive’s haggling scheme, which is contrary to the agency’s fare regulations.

In his letter, Inton argued that they received complaints from inDrive’s passengers on how they have to make an offer first to the driver before making negotiations, where there’s a tendency for bookings to get declined. “Clearly resulting to several franchise violations such as contracting passengers, overcharging, and if the booking is declined, unjustified refusal to convey passenger,” Inton explained.

While that’s a fair complaint, we wonder how Inton’s group was able to gather these complaints considering that inDrive just got its approval from LTFRB last month and that its initial operations are outside of Metro Manila–specifically Bacolod, Baguio, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro, and Butuan.

As a response to Inton’s letter, the LTFRB has issued a show cause order to InDrive to respond to LCSP’s allegations against them on January 23. We understand LCSP’s side on the matter, and we think that inDrive needs to be more transparent and specific on how their haggling business model works: even months after announcing its plans to enter the Philippines, we don’t have a detailed explanation on the limits of inDrive’s haggling system to avoid instances of overpriced airport taxi fares reaching 5 digits.

1 Comment

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Lot , January 17, 2024

Peace. I have “tried” inDrive before, as “inDriver”. There’s no “haggling” per se. (If not mistaken, I hope they still do this process below.)
Step 1, Passenger posts place of destination and pickup;
Step 2, The system gives an estimate of how much a fare is “fair”: there’s min and max amounts;
Step 3, passenger chooses an amount from the offer, that automatically sends the choice across every member driver’s phones;
Step 4, the driver interested (they can be plenty) can choose to “accept” or will offer another amount. That’s final. First driver responder with agreeable amount “wins”.
If this is still the process, then, inDrive has the best platform.