City plans to tap Grab, Uber in official trips

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government will embark on a partnership with operators of transport network vehicle services (TNVS) and utilize the services of Grab and Uber in delivering basic services.

The City Council approved two resolutions authored by Councilor Eugenio Gabuya, Jr. authorizing Mayor Tomas Osmeña to sign and enter into separate memorandum of understanding with Uber and Grab.

“The Cebu City government intends to partner with transport network to learn about transport network vehicle services that may be adopted by the city government in order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness in providing public services; and maximize technological innovations for government service,” read a portion Gabuya’s resolution.

Under the proposed MOU with Uber, the Cebu City Hall will assign six city-owned vehicles and seven city hall drivers to be registered in the Uber application.

Employees of the City Health Department will book using uberGOV in their Uber app during the trial period.

The city government will identify the employees who will be authorized to access uberGOV.

For Uber’s part, the company will create a vehicle view called uberGOV for city hall employees’ use.

Uber will then gather data during the trial period such as driver’s status, hours spent online, trips made via uberGov, travel time and livemap.

On the other hand, in the proposed MOU with Grab, authorized employees of the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) will book their official trips using the Grab application.

CTO will identify the authorized employees and then the city government will provide a list of mobile numbers of the employees to Grab.

These employees will be given a promo code in booking their official trip which should be paid in cash.

The city government has yet to establish guidelines for the use of the Grab app.

For Grab’s part, it will gather data during the trial period like cost per trip; travel time; trips made via the app; livemap; among others.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña supports the plan while the City Legal Office also supports the approval of resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into and sign the MOUs. (FREEMAN)