Uber’s offer to pay fines to LTFRB, drivers could reach up to P100M—Poe

Senator Grace Poe meets with LTFRB and Uber executives. Photo from Senator Grace Poe’s office.

A projected amount of at least P100 million in fines is what the Uber management will have to pay to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and its affected drivers, Senator Grace Poe said on Friday.

Poe, chairman of the Senate committee on public services, recently met with the heads of the LTFRB and Uber in a bid to iron out issues that had caused inconvenience to Uber drivers and the riding public.

After the meeting, Uber committed to pay “millions of pesos” worth of fine to the LTFRB so it would overturn its earlier decision to suspend the ride-sharing firm’s operations for a month. The LTFRB has yet to decide on Uber’s offer which will be heard in a board meeting on Wednesday next week.

READ: Uber willing to pay hefty fine as ‘rectification’ for mess with LTFRB

But in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel on Friday, Poe said aside from the P10 million Uber offered to pay to the LTFRB for violating certain policies, Uber will also give monetary assistance to its around 66,000 drivers daily.

READ: Uber offers to pay P10-M fine instead of serving suspension

“You try to multiple that. They (Uber) said they have about 66,000 drivers, then they will have to do the algorithm and formula for this based on how active you are. Something like P100 per day for lost wages but other drivers can receive as much as P1,200 a day depending on how active they are so that will equate, when we were computing how much they will actually write in the pleading, to more than a P100 million,” Poe said.

The P10 million that will go the LTFRB will not go to the agency, but to the national treasury according to LTFRB chair Martin Delgra III, said Poe.

“It’s P10 million being offered to the LTFRB for the damages for the violations, which will not really stay with the LTFRB, chairman Delgra clarified that will go the national treasury,” she said.

But the remaining amount of over P100 million, Poe said, would only be 5 percent of what Uber is earning in a year.

“Uber makes money of at least P5 million a day from their drivers; so how much is that, P5 million times 30 days, let’s say so that’s P150 million in a month, something like that,” Poe explained.

“That’s more than how many percent of what they’re earning in a year that’s about maybe 5 percent or more of what they earn in a year so it’s more than a slap on the wrist but since this is very new, it should also send a signal to others,” she said. – Jullianne Love de Jesus , IDL