Beep, a poor copy of Octopus

By Art Jimenez

 

Due to the vigilance and incessant complaints from Metro Manila commuters and the timely response of the DoTr and LTFRB, the “No Card, No Ride” policy it imposed in favor of AF Payments, Inc. on EDSA buses has been suspended starting October 5. It was just four days after the scheme was rolled out on Monday. The company is the outfit the government authorized under its private-public partnership program to unify the contactless fare collection system of the train lines, P2P buses, and DOTr buses in Metro Manila.

AF Payments is named after co-owners Ayala and First Pacific giants. The system is based on a smart card that a passenger waves, taps, or faces on an electronic panel at the bus entrance or train platform. When you get down, the passenger taps another panel that will deduct the right fare from the card loan balance. Should the passenger forget to tap out (pun intended), then the maximum fare will be deducted.

AFPI sells its “Beep” cards at P180 each. One hundred pesos (P100) is the consumable load while the P80 is the cost of the card. Talk of taking advantage of the “No Beep, No Ride” policy which only made commuters choose between “Beep” and “Walk.”

That P80 is the bone of contention between the riding public and the insensitive AFPI. Commuters, including DoTr Secretary Arthur Tugade, tried gentle persuasion to sway Ayala-First Pacific top execs to remove the P80 in the spirit of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at this time of the pandemic. Totally unmoved and ever the profit-driven Ayala-First Pacific even claimed the P80 does not give them any profit.

DoTr spokesperson ASEC Goddes Hope Libiran said on TV Monday evening that the Beep card for P2P buses was sold only for P20 before October 1. She added in Tagalog, “Kaya nagulat kami pagdating ng October 1, biglang nagkaroon ng reklamo na naging P80.”

I am certain AFPI has used the Octopus Card electronic fare payment system of Hong Kong as its Beep card model. However, it intentionally (I would say) left out the sterling qualities of the former.

One, Octopus card was used seamlessly for both HK trains and buses from the beginning, the latter being run by the Metro Transit Railway Corp., Ltd. AFPI just started with the P2P buses on October 1. It had its smart card at the LRT/MRT since 2015 although passengers could still buy single ticket passes.

Two, Octopus cards sell for HK$150. Of this, HK$100 is the consumable load while the HK$50 is a refundable deposit. When you leave Hong Kong, the HK$50 deposit is refunded with whatever load balance is there.

Three, Octopus cardholders are given a fare discount to encourage its use. Nonesuch for Beep Beep, (which sounds like Roadrunner running away with the commuters’ P80 multiplied by hundreds of thousand cards all the way to Ayala’s bank BPI).

I wonder how much cash bonanza AFPI has earned from the thousands or hundreds of thousands of Beep cards it sold in just four days. What a fat cash cow is that flat Beep card! But with its suspension, cash cow is, thankfully, fat no more. At least for now.

Four, An Octopus cardholder can overdraw up to HK$35, which he automatically pays when he loads up the next time.

Five, Free load ups. Filling up an Octopus smart card is free. On the contrary, AFPI charges a “convenience fee” of P5 per load, which is “not receipted,” according to Sec. Tugade. He gave AFPI an option: remove the P5 or issue an O.R.

Six, An Octopus card has no required minimum maintaining balance. AFPI requires a minimum balance of P65. It is unclear if AFPI deducts a certain amount as a sort of “penalty” if the load balance falls below P65.

Seven, Octopus card is owned by a holdings company composed of five major transportation firms. Meanwhile, AFPI is primarily owned by just two conglomerates that are not engaged in public bus operations nor ownership until recently.

If, because of its intransigence, AFPI could lose its Beep card business altogether to a competitor that the consortium of bus operators could select and even could own and operate.

This is not at all far-fetched since Sec. Tugade, partially out of exasperation maybe, said he would “welcome multiple players for the contactless payment system in transportation.”

Whichever, AFPI can cast an eye, which it already did last year, on Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, and Davao. And we better be ready for being forewarned is forearmed.

 

P.S.

After I wrote finis to the above column last Monday evening, AFPI announced it will no longer sell its P80-Beep card. This was their too little, too late 360-degree flip in response to the consumer pleas and the failed government moral suasion. Instead, AFPI announced, it will GIVE AWAY 150,000 such cards to the needy, who they have yet to identify.

This was after President Duterte voiced his displeasure over this Beep, beep thing. See? It takes only an Arf! from the Chief Executive to put Ayala and First Pacific in line!

But I tell you, those cards are in the AFPI ready-to-sell inventory and which could no longer be sold anyway because of the Beep suspension. Hence, AFPI’s claim that “This offer has been made possible by our shareholders and business groups, who graciously donated the needed funds to pay up to 125,000 free cards” for me is not the whole truth.

Here’s the catch to this offer. If DoTr accepts it on behalf of the commuters, that would also mean lifting the Beep card suspension. And AFPI cannot afford even a day of suspension. See? The right hand takes away what the left hand gives.

But if I was an NCR commuter, I’d prefer to pay for my bus ride in cash. Period.

Get a load of this. The AFPI principal stockholders Ayala firm and First Pacific control Manila Water Co., Inc. and Maynilad Water Services, respectively. These are the same water duo who won an arbitral award from a Singapore court of some P10 billion against our Government when we refused to do its bidding about two years ago. (Note: First Pacific is the mother company of Metro Pacific Investments of Maynila Water.)

Remember? An enraged President Duterte vowed to take over Manila Water and Maynilad for their onerous and illegal contract with the government. And voila! Both water firms folded and said they would no longer seek payment of the P10 billion!

Each time naughty boys’ fingers are caught inside the candy jar, they blush and offer all sorts of toeing the line gimmicks just to be forgiven and even rewarded.

Globe-ally Smart, indeed, are these AFPI controlling interests!