Service Contracting Program for Public Transportation in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic: Initial Evaluation and Policy Implications

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented impacts on public transport operations globally. As a result, public transport authorities rolled out programs to address these impacts and improve public transport operations' safety, reliability, and viability despite the pandemic. This study evaluated the initial implementation of the Service Contracting program as a COVID-19 response intervention in the Philippines from the perspective of public transport service providers, particularly those members of Transport Service Cooperatives (TSCs). The results revealed that most concerns of the TSCs are related to the onboarding process, delays in the processing of payrolls, issues with the online monitoring system, and subsidy-related issues. Meanwhile, key recommendations from the TSCs were related to the expansion of the covered beneficiaries, expediting the processes and procedures, authorization of more routes previously prohibited from operation due to the COVID-19 lockdown, and intensified communication efforts. Policy implications were also presented based on the results of the study.