The Department of Transportation said the government card provider will deliver more beep cards soonest to solve the shortage supply of it. But AFPI said they had several issues in making beep cards.
Train commuters have been experiencing shortage of stored value cards, or Beep cards, because of issues on electronic chips and special gas from Russia that are used in manufacturing the cards and other problems in logistics, high production costs and the closure of manufacturing sites in China because of the surging COVID 19 cases there.
These factors cropped up in a discussion between the Department of Transportation (which received the commuter complaints on Beep cards) and card supplier, the AF Payments Inc. recently.
The DoTr said AFPI promised to send 150,000 cards as soon as possible, said Randolph Clet, DoTr project manager of the automated fare collection system.
He said AFPI had several issues in producing contactless cards that replaced the previous magnetic card system under the concession agreement signed in 2016.
However, commuters noted that AFPI started selling the Beep Cards for ₱188 each without load and excluded shipping fees on e-commerce sites like Shopee and Lazada despite the alleged shortage of Beep cards in some Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) stations while beep cards cost only ₱30 at train stations.
Last November 28, AFPI claimed that it launched official online stores for Beep Cards to alleviate the shortage of cards in a train, bus, and e-jeepneys stations around Metro Manila.
However, on Facebook Marketplace, another e-commerce platform, Beep cards are being sold at P120-₱150 without load.
Meanwhile, Digital Pinoys national campaigner Ronald Gustilo urged the DOTr to scrap its contract with AFPI after the latter started selling more expensive Beep cards online despite supposed supply chain issues on top of the complaints of “overpriced” Beep cards amid the pandemic in 2020.
“They said the supply is not enough, but how come they are able to sell it in their stores on online shopping platforms for a much higher price?” Gustilo said.
Not in concession agreement
Clet cited an official report from AFPI that it was selling Beep cards outside of train stations, which is not covered by the concession agreement signed in 2016. Only cards sold in train stations are covered by government subsidies.
Clet added that as long as the solutions fit the criteria for the government's automated fare collection system, the DOTr and railway operators are open to considering them.
But Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services was not satisfied with that response and wanted an explanation from the DoTr why it was unable to address the issue despite having access to the funds as subsidies to the public transport sector.
“We have allocated billions for the development and modernization of our railways’ system. Our people must feel the fruits of their hard-earned taxes,” Poe said noting that this matter was a step back from the aims of the governments
“The time spent lining up for every single-journey ticket is a moment wasted for our already weary commuters,” she said.
Tags: #BeepCard, #DoTr