Mayor nixes 10-minute road leeway for couriers

By Jordan G. Habbiling

BAGUIO CITY -- The city council has passed a resolution urging the Baguio City Police Office, Public Order and Safety Division and deputized anti-road obstruction enforcers to give a ten-minute leeway to all delivery riders in the city to deliver orders or finish their errands.
    The resolution authored by Councilor Joel Alangsab aims to protect delivery riders from being charged for illegal parking or obstruction when delivering orders. However, Mayor Benjamin returned the resolution to the council last Wednesday unsigned.
    According to Alangsab, the lack of sufficient parking in the city makes the delivery riders vulnerable to traffic charges along public roads or highways such as illegal parking or obstruction especially when their clients request for door-to-door delivery.
    Alangsab said the riders in the city are appealing for sufficient parking time to pick-up or deliver orders of their clients and customers to avoid being apprehended.
    The unsigned resolution went back to the council with a letter by Magalong explaining that the implementation of the resolution will cause “more conflict on the ground.”
    “Aside from the fact that the 10-minute time is difficult to monitor and the said time, apparently, does not suffice for bulk orders, this is also susceptible to abuse which will ultimately cause heated arguments between our enforcers and the concerned riders,” the letter said.

Magalong said a better solution to this problem is to require all the business establishments utilizing the services of these riders to allocate spaces in their parking lots as waiting areas or to let the Traffic and Transportation Technical Working Group (TTWG) identify waiting areas for them.