Have complaint vs buses, jeeps? Go to Facebook

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) wants to capitalize on the social media craze by urging commuters to course their complaints against buses and jeepneys through the agency’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The LTFRB is fixing problems with its publicly advertised “1342” hotlines so it has been more active in engaging complaints through its Facebook and Twitter accounts, said the agency chair, Martin Delgra.

“The problem with the present system is that it is outsourced and those handling the complaints do not know how to respond and would merely relay the complaints to us, which takes a lot of time,” Delgra said on the sidelines of a consultation-meeting here attended by representatives of the northern and central Luzon transport sector on Wednesday.

Filipinos ranked first in the world for spending the most time each day on social media, according to a report on internet trends released in January by social media management platform Hootsuite and the United Kingdom-based consultancy firm, We Are Social Ltd.

The report showed that Filipinos spent an average of four hours and 17 minutes daily on social media sites that include Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

In September 2015, the LTFRB launched a 24-hour hotline “1342,” which was meant to address complaints related to public transport. It was mandatory for passenger buses and jeepneys, utility vehicle (UV) Express and taxis as well as trucks-for-hire to post this number on the vehicle body: “May reklamo ka ba? Itawag sa (For complaints, call) LTFRB Hotline 0917-550-1342 [Globe] or 0998-550-1342 [Smart].”

But the hotline became the subject of criticism after passengers reported that their complaints were not addressed.

To better engage the public, Delgra said they have considered transferring the management of the hotline to a unit in LTFRB run by its personnel.

“We are now rebidding the contract for the outsourcing but we also have the option of handling the operations internally. That way, our personnel can immediately respond to complaints because they are in a better position to answer,” he said.