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  1. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    29,354
    #1
    Second-class citizens
    COUNTER FLOW By James Deakin (The Philippine Star)
    Updated July 18, 2012 12:00 AM

    Last Sunday, July 8, a group of mountain bikers, road bikers, triathletes, surfers, kayakers and general holiday goers made their weekly pilgrimage up North to escape the concrete jungle that is Metro Manila. Aside from keeping fit and active like many environmentally conscious folks these days, most are trying to reduce their carbon footprint by swapping mindless malling for mother nature—like surfing the waves and not the net or riding a bike instead of a couch—so you can imagine how horrified they might have been when they found out that they now needed to pay twice as much for the privilege.

    “It’s makes absolutely no sense,” says Ariel de Jesus, a recreational mountain biker and managing director of Würth Philippines. “Highway robbery,” adds Raffy Zamora, President of Health Food and Herb Products Inc. “What did bikers ever do to you guys?” the 32-year old triathlete continues, while Joby Oreta, an avid mountain biker and distributor of On One bikes in the Philippines, finishes up by saying, “It is nothing short of extortion.”

    These were just a handful of the hundreds of comments, emails, texts, tweets and private messages I received since the Tollways Management Corp., the company that operates the NLEX, enforced their new high-load classification policy that effectively reclassifies all class one vehicles with any top loading unit, be it a bicycle rack, surfboard rack, luggage rack or any other rack that increases the vehicle’s height to 7 feet or over, to be charged as a class 2 vehicle—which, in layman terms, means double the price.

    In fact, since the announcement, I have counted more than 700 emails, texts, private messages, tweets and comments—not including the thousands of digital stabs that are posted across Internet forums everywhere—and not one had anything to add in support of the new policy that was implemented last week, leaving me with little choice but to set up a petition page to channel it all.

    Everyone can understand the need for reclassification if a vehicle exceeds the payload capacity or gross vehicle weight, but most, if not all, have trouble understanding how a roof-mounted bike carrier as opposed to a rear-mounted one doubles a vehicles footprint. Same weight, just added length. We can also fully appreciate how a vehicle over 7-foot tall can be deemed as class 2, especially if it is loaded with 2 tons of coconuts or fruit and vegetables, but to automatically re-classify all vehicles over 7 feet as class 2 is like imposing a minimum height requirement for people to buy beer or enter a casino: pure discrimination.

    This same situation happened along the SLEX in 2010. But all it took was a quick letter and a few beers in the Tower Club, and the issue was addressed swiftly by the very sensible President of Skyway O&M, Mr. Ramon Borromeo. Within twenty four hours, all tollway attendants were given instructions to exempt all class one vehicles with approved top loaders, like luggage racks, bike carriers, surf boards etc, and asked to concentrate solely on the over-loaded jeepneys and vans that try to circumvent the rule, which prompted me to contact the Vice President of Toll Operations of the NLEX, Mr. Bobby Bontia, to see if he could extend the same concession.

    Now just for the record, I don’t know Bobby. Turns out we have some mutual friends and I even hosted an intimate 40th birthday party that he attended, but aside from that being irrelevant, we figured that out after the fact. I got his number from the former operations manager of the SLEX, Nikko David, and just called cold. What was important was being put in touch with the right eyes and ears who could justify the increase, and then, if not fix it completely, find some middle ground.

    Turned out that they had already met about it and realized the oversight, and as of July 15, 2012, exactly one week after implementing the rule, agreed to have the rule formally lifted. “The rule was devised to counter the abuse from some vehicle operators that circumvent the rules by dangerously over-loading their roof racks with produce. Although the recreational bikers were never the target, we realized the negative impact that this has had on them and have lifted the policy.” The exemption will include all class one vehicles that are carrying bicycles or other sporting equipment on approved racks, so long as they are secured properly and used in accordance with their intended design. Class one vehicles like jeepneys and delivery vans that are transporting produce and suspected to be overloaded will be assessed separately.

    EC tag holders will need to use the manual lanes until video surveillance cameras are installed in the automated ones.

    Although some may argue that it should never have happened in the first place, I would like to commend Mr. Bontia and the rest of the TMC for seeing reason and reacting quickly with a sensible and popular solution. I would also like to take this opportunity to caution other toll operators against randomly implementing arbitrary rules without the facts and figures to back it up. We don’t live in a black and white world, so it pays to be flexible enough to apply a little discretion every now and again. After all, good management may be achieved by making rules and sticking to them, but great management is achieved by knowing where the exceptions are.

    Email james*deakin.ph.
    source: Second-class citizens - COUNTER FLOW By James Deakin - The Philippine Star » Business Features » Motoring

  2. Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    1,442
    #2
    It's about time that they surcharge yan mga may bike racks. It's not safe. their bikes can fly to any direction in case of an accident, and affect more motorists.

    and I don't buy that carbon footprint stuff. imagine to lose the extra pounds, you need to longdrive an SuV, buy expensive bike Equipments, buy DSLR ( say Facebook photos), and eat like there is no tomorrow after the activity coz somehow justified yun perspiration for the day.

    to amateur bikers, don't wear those tight fitting bike sports outfit, ampangit tignan yun lawit ang tyan, taba sa likod, b-faced na mukha na d magkasya sa helmet.

    to have a healthy lifestyle, incorporate exercise daily coz kelangan ilabas ang kinain na sobra at the soonest possible time. Hindi yan nakukuha ng weekend. it's a mind trick that you're getting thin over those weekend getaways. yun pictures nyo sa FB wag nyo pa-like sa mga friends nyo na equally living a sedentary lifestyle coz Syempre may improvement kahit .09% Lang lol!

    If you loose a measily 5 lbs during a bike run, that's just losing yun extra water sa bilbil nyo. something that can easily be gained sa 5 day no exercise work week.


    If you ask me, yan ang sayang, imagine all those expensive gears and stuff and fuel, tpos di naman pumapayat

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JAMES DEAKIN: Second-class citizens