Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) accredited Uber as a Transport Network Company (TNC) on Wednesday (August 19), two days before the scheduled crackdown on unregistered app-based transport vehicles.
GrabCar had earlier registered as a TNC. The next step for the two companies is to have their operators enlisted as a Transportation Network Vehicle Service (TNVS).
GrabCar on Tuesday submitted an initial 600 TNVS applications, which were processed by LTFRB overnight to beat the August 20 deadline. Four balikbayan boxes containing additional applications arrived on Wednesday morning.
The LTFRB is now encountering a backlog due to the volume of documents that arrived. LTFRB Executive Director Roberto Cabrera III said applications could normally be processed within 72 hours.
Cabrera explained that an approved TNVS, would be given provisional authority to operate, thus avoiding the crackdown on Friday (August 21).
Without this provisional authority, Cabrera pointed out that vehicles cannot operate even if its company has been accredited.
The LTFRB is expecting Uber to submit TNVS applications on Wednesday afternoon.
CNN Philippines’ Kristine de Guzman contributed to this report.
