MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board said it expects to resolve within this week the complaint against ride-hailing app JoyRide for adding “priority boarding fees” to its fare matrix.
In a series of Viber messages, LTFRB Executive Director Tina Cassion told reporters that JoyRide was the only transport network company that the board found to have changed its fare matrix by charging its passengers the optional “priority boarding fee.”
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“Among the TNCs that our mystery riders tried to book for a ride, it was only JoyRide that had the priority fee. We were told that this is also being done for deliveries, but that it is outside our scope already,” she said in Filipino.
“We have submitted a report to the board on the result of the operations of our mystery riders and the board is expected to issue a verdict probably on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest,” she also said.
To recall, the LTFRB earlier said to have received an anonymous complaint against JoyRide, with the rider claiming that the company was overcharging passengers for as much as P1,000 per booking.
This prompted the agency to deploy “mystery riders” to verify the complaint. The LTFRB said it also wrote separate warning letters to E-pick Me Up, Ipara, JoyRide, My Taxi PH, and Cloud Panda, though it admitted that only JoyRide had a complaint filed against it.
JoyRide has since pointed out in its response that the fee was optional while also being an "industry used term and practice." It maintained that it was "fully compliant" with the board's fare rules.
"JoyRide is completely unaware of any such findings made by the LTFRB up to this date...the allegations in the latest statement of the LTFRB dated June 2, 2022 shared to us by the media comes as a complete surprise to us," it said.