The Growing Urvan Legend

My apologies for this week’s title, I just couldn’t resist the pun. I admit to a certain fondness for Nissan’s box-on-wheels. I’ve had pleasant experiences with borrowed Urvans from Universal Motors Corporation, its exclusive distributor. It has served as staff shuttle and cargo transport for several events I’ve organized. During post-Ondoy relief operations it was the workhorse of our small fleet, carrying anything from three dozen boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts to four hundred 2-kilo packs of goods plus several volunteers, wading through knee-deep floodwaters and chugging up bridges and hills with nary a peep from its reliable, diesel-fed drivetrain. Our borrowed 21-seater unit had the side facing benches and thus doubled as a resting place for catnaps and jollyjeep-style meal breaks. It even had those “Urvan Ur Business” graphics on the sides, which made it a little bit embarrassing at first but quickly became a topic of conversation among the many good folks and new friends we made during that week, most of whom were impressed by the capacity of the Urvan to swallow anything you could stuff inside it and still have the pep of a college graduate working his first job.

To a jaded car nut, an Urvan doesn’t even register as a blip on his “cool cars” radar, but for entrepreneurial folks, they will care less about the horsepower rating than the money it can bring in thanks to its basic nature as people mover. And for Universal Motors, the decision to market an otherwise aging and nondescript vehicle into a self-liquidating asset is a stroke of genius. Here’s how it happened: UMC, being one of the companies of the prominent Lee family (the first and only Filipino-owned automobile manufacturing group in the Philippines), was in a challenging situation in 2006. The vehicles they had the rights to distribute (Patrol, Frontier, Urvan) were nice but getting old, no new products would be coming in for a while, and the economy was in the doldrums as always. Now, it’s easy to market a new product, not so easy when the product is getting to the stage when critics politely describe it as “reliable” and “evergreen”.

But opportunity is everywhere when your mind can see what the eyes cannot. For the Urvan, of course, it had become so ubiquitous that it had already blended into the automotive landscape. I myself can’t remember how many times I’d ridden to work in an Urvan shuttle back in the days when I was working in Makati. Small businesses were already using the Urvan as a school bus, “FX” shuttle, and light cargo truck. Why not create a program for this type of market, making it easier for them to understand its earning potential?

And that’s how the “Ur Van Ur Business” (UVUB) program was conceptualized. UMC actively began promoting the many different configurations available for the Urvan, from 12/18/21-seater shuttle to ambulance to mobile store. It introduced the “Ipadala Mo Negosyo” program to support OFWs looking for ways to maximize their remittances. The Asenso Negosyo Academy was also established, which is a series of seminars to impart the necessary knowledge and skills to run a successful Urvan business. The current “Be Mobile” campaign explores the possibilities of expanding the reach of structured businesses by going mobile. With a “pay it forward” approach, UMC also donates a part of the proceeds from Urvan sales and provides entrepreneurial management training to the non-profit organization Center for Community Transformation and its Entrep-Skwela program.

Just to give you an idea of viable the concept has been, UMC has sold over 6,000 Urvans since 2006... and chances are most of them weren’t really bought just for personal use (that’s what the Urvan Estate is for). More important than the sales generated are what it has done to actively do something for Filipinos. By UMC’s estimates, the UVUB program has helped more than 3,000 families and has had a hand in the creation of more than 4,400 individual jobs. Of course, just producing those 6,000 Urvans means UMC’s factory workers also had something worthwhile to do while other factories were having to deal with low demand.

For example, one “Urvanite” (UMC’s term for its users) is a Mrs. Nora Suarez, who runs a Shuttle Service in the lucrative Ayala-Makati area. She owns 8 Urvans while her children own another 5, therefore providing an honest living for the 13 drivers that are needed to operate the units. Because of the earnings from the shuttle service, she can also provide startup money for the drivers’ own motorcycles which are also being converted into assets. Another team, Mr. and Mrs. Amar Dellosa, provide the shuttle service for a large multinational FMCG company, operating 7 Urvans and employing 30 drivers. They plan to invest in 5 more units. The Entrep-Skwela program of CCT has also produced successful micro-entrepreneur start-ups ranging from rice retailers and sari-sari stores to pedicab fleets.

The UVUB program may have started out as a creative way to promote a product, but the way it has worked wonders for both UMC and its owner-operator “Urvanites” validates the sort of “pay it forward” approach we should all be practicing anyway. This Christmas, I’m sure all these “Urvanites” will be feeling pretty good. You could even say it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Here are some of your Backseat Driver reactions from Lester Dizon’s Racketeering in Government last week. They’re a bit lengthy, but quite necessary as you’ll see…

I had a similar incident last October when I was renewing my driver’s license. The LTO official told me that my license was flagged by the MMDA, so he told me to go the MMDA main office to have it cleared. I was indeed apprehended by the MMDA 2 years back for the Yellow Lane violation, but they used the ticketing system where will pay your dues thru a local bank without confiscating your license. I paid the necessary dues a day after I was apprehended. Good thing I had a copy of the deposit slip as a proof that I already paid my dues. The problem is they should have cleared my license way back when I paid my dues. These morons must be thinking that I may have lost the receipt and they could dupe me for more money.

?Another thing is that with the antics of those unscrupulous officers, they’ve already defeated the whole purpose of that ticketing system, which is the convenience of avoiding the long lines of clearing your license. – frandrew1026

The strangest things really happen!

I renewed my license May of this year and as you know, our licenses are renewable every three years. LTO told me that my license was flagged by MMDA with a violation committed January of 2006! That was a full four months before I renewed my license last May 2006! No MMDA alarm was posted and I was able to renew mine last 2006 without hassle.

Last May of 2009, when LTO told me that there is an MMDA alarm for my license, I was flabbergasted. I have not been in Manila for the past two years as I was working in Bacolod then so I said, how did I ever got an alarm. Since there is no MMDA in Bacolod, I called up the MMDA hotline to inquire and voila… MMDA told me that there was an alarm posted for reckless driving! I protested, more so when I was told that it happened more than three years ago.

This guy from MMDA then told me to just pay it since it only cost less than 200 pesos. I told him it is not the amount but the issue of being cited without committing any violation. He answered that I can go to their office to have it voided if I want. I asked him how I could since I was in Bacolod at that time. To cut the story short, I was forced to pay thru the bank since I needed to renew my license immediately.

I wonder how these people from MMDA do this legal extortion? If one has already renewed his license without any charges of driving violation, they should not be charging people more than three years after they say one has committed a violation.

This issue is just one of the unjust regulation that MMDA has imposed on us. Thank God that soon, another one will rule and I just hope that the replacement can revoke other regulations that MMDA has implemented such as the very dangerous U-turn barriers and pink fences! – pencil_at_papel

Many years ago I was stopped for turning left illegally and when I asked where the sign was, the police officer pointed to me where it was positioned, not readily visible to motorists because it was not at eye level. I also experienced the rudeness of an MMDA traffic personnel when he made my driver stop 5 years ago for turning to EDSA from Aurora Boulevard when there was no sign there. These people...it is useless to argue with them.

Regarding renewal of driver’s license, I think that another racket is the drug test wherein they require you to submit a sample of your urine. It is useless since even if you take illegal drugs they will just take the urine and most probably just throw it away and you still get your license. – colossus