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Source : http://www.expatch.org/2014/05/13/tricycles-in-the-philippines/

Tricycles in the Philippines

Posted by Rhett Kinneas on May 13, 2014

In Western world, tricycles may mean any three-wheeled vehicle. In the Philippines, however, a tricycle
is an important mode of public transportation. It has three wheels but has unique improvised features
such as a sidecar and other flashy decors. You may have seen some Philippine tricycles in the city streets
and they can prove to be very convenient when travelling short distances. Tricycles also offer the
convenience of giving you a ride to your exact destination like your home, instead of dropping you off at
a common stopover.

In highly populated urban areas, mostly in residential zones, tricycles are quite abundant. They help
people travel short distances. Unlike a jeepney, which is another mode of transportation in the
Philippines, you can hire tricycles privately. Even in the rural area, tricycles are plentiful and many
people prefer them over jeepneys because of the privacy factor. In many crowded streets, tricycles can
sneak their way into traffic and even pass through tight streets because they are small.

In many subdivisions in the Philippines where entry of public transportation is limited, you will usually
find a queue of tricycles at the entrance. These vehicles are usually the only public transportation that
can enter subdivisions. In some areas, tricycles are colour-coded based on their route.

For many Filipinos, driving a tricycle is an immediate source of income. It is quite easy to buy a
motorcycle and some choose to pay in installments. They simply modify the motorcycle and turn it into
a tricycle by adding a sidecar. Once the rest of the paperwork is done, they can start servicing
passengers with their registered tricycles.

In some districts in the Philippines, tricycles are colour-coded based on their route.

In Metro Manila, however, tricycles have limited routes. Basically, they are not allowed to traverse the
major roads since they will add to the already very congested flow of traffic in these major roads like in
EDSA.

In many places, tricycles have actually been modified to accommodate more people. They can actually
fit up to eight people into a single tricycle, including the driver.

Tricycles charge at varying rates depending on location. It is a must to know how much is the tricycle
fare at a certain place since some drivers have a tendency to overcharge if you do not know the correct
rate. Tricycle fare rates are rarely regulated by local governments and at times more expensive than a
bus ride.
Source :

http://rajneesh.com.np/2011/06/20/a-close-look-at-tricycle-drivers-in-manila/

A CLOSE LOOK AT TRICYCLE DRIVERS IN MANILA

JUNE 20, 2011 ADMIN

Hilario Satino is a tricycle driver in Manila for the last 27 years. His day starts at 4 am, looking after
different commuters and taking them to the places they want. The local government here however
intends to bans the tricycle in Katipunan National Highway for safety reasons. But the plan was however
kept on hold due to protest from different tricycle organization in the area.

Hilario lives at Dalawang Poste with his wife and four children, near the University of Phlippines. He is
renting a house worth P1,500 a month. His average daily income in driving tricycle is around P500 to
P600 but most of this goes to rent, food, and other needs in the house.

For Hilario his tricycle is everything. But now as the government intends to ban his tricycle from
Kantipunn Avenue—which is one of the many national highways here, he says, days ahead will be
difficult.

The Metro Manila Development Authority had banned the tricycles in this Avene three years back, but it
was temporary lifted after the tricycle riders filed a complaint. The government officials have been
saying that it will improve the traffic within the city, but the tricycle drivers don’t want to miss their
decade old customers.

According to a report there are 250,000 sidecars and they are used for transport of any kind of cargo,
animals and people. This vehicle normally takes 2 to 4 person normally and is comparatively cheaper
than taxis. But if the government bans the tricycles from this avenue, it is likely to affect customers as
well as tricycle riders.

https://www.vagabondjourney.com/meet-the-men-who-drive-tricycles-an-inside-look-at-the-
philippines-three-wheeled-motorcycle-taxis/

Meet The Men Who Drive Tricycles: An Inside Look At The Philippines’ Three-Wheeled Motorcycle Taxis

Published on April 30, 2013 by Apol Danganan Follow me on Twitter here.

“Kanto, kanto!”
Kanto, which translates to the word “corner” in English, is used by tricycle drivers in this area to indicate
a certain corner where many passengers get off to transfer to their next means of transportation. I hear
this word the very moment I step out of the gate of my home every day. Every morning when I leave for
work and every night when I walk home, tricycle drivers continuously tout me.

In this specific location where we live in Metro Manila, there are an extraordinary number of tricycles
that crowd the streets every day, blocking people’s way, creating traffic jams, and the kind of inevitable
irritation that has to be dealt with daily. I had never lived in an area that has as many tricycles as there
are here.

I occasionally complain about how tricycle drivers here are so undisciplined — most of the time stopping
in front of us, blocking our way and stopping us in our tracks just to tout us for a ride. I have already
learned how to deal with the “kanto, kanto” chant, at times just ignoring it or shaking my head no. But
there are times when I can’t help getting really annoyed by too insistent drivers.

To satisfy my curiosity about why there seems to have overabundance of tricycles in this area, I headed
to the tricycle terminal where we take our tricycle ride every morning and approached Mang Eduard to
ask some questions.

The tricycle driver was a bit skeptical when I asked him if I could pose some questions, but after I began
he just answered and never even asked why I was interviewing him.

“On a normal day, how many trips can you make?” I asked.

“30, around that number,” he answered.

What time do you start and end?

“4 a.m. in the morning until 10 p.m.,” he replied.

Considering the short distance, I thought 30 was a small number for 18 hours of work.

“Do you always have to queue to get passengers?” I continued asking.

“Of course,” he answered.

“So to be a member in the TODA, do you have to pay?” I asked.

“Yeah, we have to pay ₱25 per day.”

While there are membership perks for tricycle drivers, like safety seminars and other workshops, they
have to pay if they want to operate for the day. They have to compete with other drivers for passengers
too: the more TODA members, the longer the queue, the less chance for more trips and more
passengers.

“There are a lot of tricycles in this area. Why is that so?” I asked.

Another driver got interested in our conversation and he shared his thoughts too.

“There are really a lot of tricycles here. Even tricycles from other districts reach this area. Some are even
colorum tricycles,” he said.

“How do you know it is colorum?” I inquired further.

“They don’t have body numbers,” they both answered.

“And these tricycles are not allowed to ply your route?” I asked.

“No, we don’t allow them because it will be our loss,” Mang Eduard answered.

Colorum tricycles are those that operate without a franchise and drivers are fined when caught. ₱3,000
is the fine and, once paid, drivers go back to driving their colorum tricycles again. I saw more than 10
TODAs so far today.
“Have you ever gotten sick because of tricycle driving?” I finally asked.

“Yeah. I had to stop because I was sick. The doctors had to remove water from my lungs. But after a
year, I went back to driving again,” he answered.

There is a huge health risk in driving and riding tricycles. Like the jeepney, the cabin is open and tricycle
drivers and passengers inhale the smoke belched by the other traffic they are tailing.

Source:

https://www.columban.org.au/media-and-publications/the-far-east-magazine/archive/2016/the-far-
east-september-2016/a-tricycle-drivers-life

A tricycle driver’s life

Brian Buhawi is a young married man with two children. He was born in 1984. When Brian was nine
years old, his mother died and he was forced to go to work in the construction industry in a different
city. Brian’s childhood was very difficult for him. At an early age, it meant living in a different city away
from relatives and doing dangerous work on construction sites for large buildings.

At the age of 27 Brian was assigned by the construction company to Ozamis City, where he earned an
average of $7.00 per day. Brian was now married and had two children to support. It was dangerous
work so Brian took another job in a hardware store where he only earned an average of $4.00 per day.

On $4.00 per day, Brian had to pay rent for the small room his family rented in an overcrowded slum
area on the edge of the city as well as for food, schooling, heath care, clothing and other necessary
items. Rent alone cost the family $25.00 monthly. To cover the minimal costs of the family, Brian
needed to earn at least $6 per day.

The slum areas where a poor family like Brian’s rents accommodation are prone to sudden fires that can
start from open cooking fires or poorly installed electricity. These fires can sweep through the whole
slum area in minutes wiping out families and their few possessions. During the annual typhoon season,
the precarious nature of the buildings also makes them particularly vulnerable to the strong winds, rain
and flooding.

These slum areas also have a high incidence of drug trafficking, being a great concern to parents raising
children there. Snatching incidents are also an increasingly serious problem, as valuables such as bags,
purses, wallets, watches, food and clothing items can be snatched from one’s hands by passers-by or
persons on motor bikes. In seconds, they disappear out of sight.

In order to help make ends meet, Brian applied to become a tricycle driver in 2012, renting a tricycle
from a middle man. Now Brian could earn up to $10.00 per day, working from early in the morning until
around 8:00pm in the evening. A high proportion of this amount, however, had to go to pay for the rent
of the tricycle.

It was only in March 2016, after four years driving a rented tricycle that Brian applied to the Pedalling to
Live Programme and was accepted. A tricycle cost $700.00 to buy. Brian is now paying $1.70 per day
towards owning his own tricycle. He also pays 60 cents daily into a saving account in a local cooperative.

Once Brian has paid off his loan, he will be eligible to become the beneficiary of one of the new 'green'
homes, which the Pedalling to Live programme also offers. These low cost ecological homes are built out
of local materials such as clay, rice straw and husks. They are built in safe areas away from drug and
crime ridden areas. They are surrounded by small parcels of land on which the families can grow some
of their own food.

Brian says of his life as a tricycle driver.

“My life being a tricycle driver is not easy but it is much better than being so desperate that I would have
had to become a ‘snatcher’ or else beg for food. I now feed my family from my own sweat. Starting early
in the morning, I wake up and go to pick up some regular passengers and bring them to their
destinations.

I have been held up by drug addicts and my entire daily income has been taken by these boys. I gave
them all my money otherwise they would have killed me. And I went home without a single cent for my
family. Despite that set back, I will not stop driving because I have dreams for my children and I am
working so hard to become the owner of my own tricycle. In this way, I will be able to provide a lot
better for my family and also be eligible for a new low cost ‘green’ house.”

The Pedalling to Live programme has made an enormous difference to my life and that of my family”.

Virgenia O. Vidal is the coordinator of the 'Pedalling to Live' programme.