This is a podcast/video (Secret Sauce of Outsourcing, ep. 366) by John Jonas titled “Why the ICONIC Filipino Jeepney Might SOON Be History.” The host and a contributor (Julia) describe how traditional jeepneys — highly decorated, privately owned shared vehicles central to Filipino transport culture — are being phased out in favor of more regulated, higher-capacity, and often electric minibuses and buses. Reasons cited include inefficiency, safety problems, lack of standardization, poor fuel economy, and difficulty regulating independent drivers; modernization steps include government-led bus lanes, shifting drivers to cooperatives/franchises, and introducing E-jeeps with cashless payments, air conditioning, and safety features. The piece balances cultural nostalgia for jeepneys’ aesthetics with practical arguments for more efficient, accessible, and safer public transit; the host emphasizes Filipino adaptability.
Chapters
Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing to the Philippines. This is episode 366, the Disappearing Filipino Jeepney. So, typically when I talk about the disappearing Filipino, it's about people from the Philippines disappearing when they should be sticking around. But in this case, we're talking about disappearing transportation in the Philippines. So I've talked about public transport in the Philippines. In the past, the most iconic of transport in the Philippines is the jeepney. Now, some people might argue that just as iconic is the trike, which is a motorcycle with a sidecar, and it's all kind of built together and you ride in the sidecar as public transport. But probably more iconic in the Philippines is the jeepney. But jeepneys might be a thing of the past, so let me tell you really quickly. So I've never personally ridden in a jeepney. They're kind of like buses. And I don't really know. I mean, I've never been in a situation in my life where riding the bus or the bus system riding was a reality for me. And so I've never really understood how they worked. And when I was in the Philippines, which I've only been in the Philippines once, and that was in 2010, and I spent a month on vacation with my family there. So we were on the small island, and taking jeepneys wasn't a thing for us. So I've never been in a jeepney. My son, who's on a mission in the Philippines right now, has been in jeepneys, and he talks about how he's sitting in a jeepney scrunched over because they are so small. Most Filipinos are small, and my son is not small. And so he's riding in the back of a jeepney. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see this. If you're listening to this podcast, you can hopefully see me, like, scrunched over, sitting on a tiny bench for half an hour on a bumpy road where the driver thinks that he has to slam on the gas and slam on the brakes and slam on the gas. He said it is not fun. But that's. That's the public transport in the Philippines. So here's what Julia says about it. The Philippines has been trying to improve its public transportation in the past few years. They've been working on making it more efficient, environment friendly, cheaper, faster. Because when you have a good public transport system, you actually reduce the number of cars on the road. Less traffic means faster traffic. Faster traffic Means less time lost on commuting, less fuel consumption, etc. In the past few years, different places in the Philippines have been experimenting with ways to do that. Some areas are getting more buses because buses transport more people than jeepneys. They're also easier to regulate. So just so you know, jeepneys, how do you explain this? They are privately owned, but they serve the public, so they're kind of regulated. They don't really have schedules. So my son says you show up at the, at the place where the jeepney leaves from and you show up as late as you can without missing it in hopes that it's going to leave soon. Because jeepney owners only make money if they're riding full. And if they're not full, well, they'll just sit there. And they may sit there for an hour just waiting for more passengers because they don't make money if there aren't enough paying customers. So they have a specific route that they'll take, but they may deviate from it or they may, they may do whatever they want. That's what jeepneys are in the Philippines. So buses are easier to regulate because typically the government needs to provide buses because they're way more expensive. So continuing with Julia, for example, here in my hometown, they're working on changing the status of public transport drivers from independent contractors to employees of a franchise or cooperative. That way the drivers don't need to chase a quota AKA boundary. The bus drivers will be assigned shifts and routes according to what the commuters really need as opposed to what the drivers are willing to take. In Manila, they created a bus only lane on their biggest highway. This move actually encouraged more people to take the bus because it's faster and cheaper than driving or taking a cab. Places that are too small to get a regular sized bus, they're introducing minibuses marketed as modern jeepneys or E jeeps. These E jeeps don't have the same flair as traditional jeepneys. What they lack in color, they more than make up for with better fuel efficiency. Some are electric carrying, greater capacity, air conditioning, cashless payments and safety features. Now I'm going to add to this jeepneys. If you have never seen a jeepney, you need to search. Go Google jeepney J E E P N E Y. Because drivers decorate their jeepneys to make them more attractive. Well, there's a couple reasons they make them more attractive for passengers. They also, it's a unique thing for them and so they'll have like tassels and bells and all kinds of stuff on these jeepneys. Some of them are raised, some of them are lowered. Even though they are public transport, they have, they have a very distinct character to them and it's worth looking at. Julia continues. As a result, the traditional jeepneys are slowly being phased out. Jeepneys, despite their cultural significance, aren't as efficient as public transport because it's very unregulated. Getting a jeepney franchise is cheap and easy. In the Philippines, you don't even have to have a garage to get a franchise, although government regulations require that they do. Then jeepneys were nice to look at with colorful flourishes. Antennas and tassels, artwork painted or different colored reflectorized tapes cut into shapes, and those iconic horse sculptures on top of the engine hood. Now, not only have most jeepneys lost their signature aesthetics, they've also became problematic. There's little to no standard on the vehicle size, make or age. They're not fuel efficient. Most run on junkyard bought diesel engines. Safety features are practically non existent. Jeepney drivers are notorious for ignoring traffic rules like speed limits, stops or where traffic should flow. She says she inserts I twisted my ankle on two separate occasions getting off a jeepney because of reckless drivers. And I will add that my son, wow, that was his first description of jeepneys was these people are crazy. They will drive wherever they want to, it does not matter. And you're sitting in the back on a side bench that's like this wide, like 6 or 8 inches wide and ducked in crouched down, no seatbelts anywhere. People hanging off the back like holding on, standing on the bumper and holding on. All kinds of craziness going on. Julia continues. Last but not least, it's also nearly impossible to ride in one if you're a person with a disability. This is especially important for me because I have a busted knee and twisted my ankle twice. Am I sad that we might be losing the jeepney? Yes, it's a Filipino icon, but as someone who commutes regularly, I would much rather ride a bus or train. Much more comfortable now. Julia commutes regularly. She works from home, that's for sure. So she's not commuting to work. I know her daughter does go to school a good ways away, so there's probably some commute there. And maybe from her commute in the past, I'm sure mom's still are doing all kinds of stuff out of the house. I mean Julia's a mom and she's amazing. In the end, culture changes and people adapt and Filipino people are especially good at adapting. I've talked about this before and I'll talk about it again. From their natural disasters. Filipino people are really, really good at adapting and recovering and changing. This is another one that they will adapt to and they will be fine.
