Duma Trike Drivers Trained

i tip when the tyke has a stock muffler and i tell them why i'm tipping them, usually brings a smile....

 

Early in the morning you might get drivers who have been working all night. Surely they have situations where they have to be normal such as off days and spending time with family. The switching is hell on the body.

Walking around at night you'll see a lot of drivers sleeping in their pedi-cabs. I'm thinking that some of them may just live that way. Drive during the day, park and sleep at night. Interruptions to sleep and a horrible sleeping environment add up to a lot of sleep debt.

I agree. Once you're fed up it's time to move.

It won't do any good. I would rather not waste energy standing on a soapbox of principles attempting to reach people who wouldn't listen anyways. And maybe it's me who is wrong. I can move on when the time is right.

I don't take trips from the mall. The people you speak to are just hustling to play middlemen to the drivers. The drivers don't care as long as they get riders. The middlemen ask high so they can pocket the difference. Imagine this as your way of existence. Robinson's should get rid of them. The drivers are at least somewhat service professionals. The people at the mall are more like beggars asking for a handout.

Better to get a ride from the side of the street. Or exit the side which leads to the roads going downtown. There is another stopping point there.

You might also benefit from being somewhat mobile. Usually being reliant on transportation you don't own means you have to put some wear and tear on your Nikes. Locals seem to hate walking. I have no problem walking to places where I can get a pedicab easier / cheaper. For example, if you live a ways down a side street, then walk to a main street.

You might try different routes. For example, I live by Hayahay but I never go directly to the place I'm going. I always go to the market, Lee Plaza or some other places where there are a lot of pedicabs and get another ride from there. If I'm going to a really odd spot, sometimes I'll even take a few pedicabs to get there. That's also a good guide on how much you should pay to get somewhere. If you would need to pay for 3 pedicab rides to get to a location then you shouldn't expect to pay than that.

Sometimes pedicabs don't know where you are going and they assume the worst. You may notice a lot of them ask if you are going "highway only." If they don't know about X spot but there is a place nearby which gets a lot of traffic, then tell them you are going to that other place instead.

Given that your kids are going to school every morning, you might ask around to see if you can get a deal, having the kids get picked up by the same driver every morning. I have never tried this, but I imagine some would go for it.

 

There is another side to this I have seen also. Sometimes we want the entire trike to ourselves such as when we just got groceries and have a bit of a trip, its right to cover the fair for all the seats we are taking up depending on the distance. But another even bigger side is there are a number of foreigners and tourists who think once they are in no others should get in yet they think they should get the same 8 peso's fare. They don't want to be squeezed in when the trike driver knows the route he would be taking can probably yield 3-4 fairs going about the same direction (or more) but some foreigners expect once they are in no more shall enter. Many of us long timers are a bit more understanding but not many of the tourists or the shorter time foreigners who still think the Philippines should adapt to them.

So yes they try and rip us off often enough if we don't seem to know better. But in reverse plenty of *our* kind as foreigners try and screw them over as well. I've seen it happen and even pitied the rare driver for getting the shaft from a foreigner who knows it all including sometimes covering/tipping so they understand that not all of us are the same as some of the jerk off foreigners.

 

Still no excuses for urinating in front of everyone on Oceanjet. Only an afterthought, however: - If I had to take down my trousers to find my d**k, I sure as hell wouldn't be parading a 'cocktail sausage' in front of the general public on the boulevard.

 

Odd, I've been in many new trikes recently yet isn't there supposed to be a ban on new trikes? The "dispatchers" in front of Robs who guide you to a trike probably make more money than the trike drivers themselves..

Anyway, I like the trikes and use them regularly-much easier on my blood pressure. The trike drivers who'd just dropped off people at Robs were giving me the runaround yesterday so I just walked over to the side street and got one there.

They're not very smart about acquiring as many passengers per hour as possible..I'm amazed at how often the trike I am in will turn down a fare going to a location that he could easily accommodate. Oh well.. Plus I can lean on a sign post along Rizal St for 15 min and they never even ask if I want a ride. OR they stop 15 feet past me-then I just wave them off.

 

You will notice that these two drivers are wearing two different color vests and urinating in two different environmental areas.
This is part of the new tourist driver training program to make the city a nicer place for tourist. The vest color coding is used to indicate what part of the city each driver group is allowed to urinate. (obviously yellow vested drivers are suppose to urinate into the ocean, so the tourist can see that not all drivers urinate on walls, and the tourist can remember this the next time they want to go a swim or savor the taste of local caught fresh fish ). Although these photos may be offensive to some, they indicate the City's desire to create a more welcoming atmosphere for tourist. Without this system the city of Dumguete developed, the trike drivers would probably just be urinating in one or two locations (like the wall next to the old Ceres Bus Depot) and it would be developing a "sweet spot" that would be very stinky. With this system of vest colors designating the area to urinate, urinating by trike drivers is spread through out the city, eliminating the overwhelming smell of urine in a few locations. No longer will tourist be fainting from the smell along certain walls in the City or greeted by the stench of urine when they get off a Ceres Bus upon their arrival to the City of Friendly people. Now the tourists will be able to inhale a much more diluted smell of urinate as they explore the city, with no more concentrated sweet spots, that make them want to scurry for another tourist city.

 

They're dirty, have too many intoxicated drivers, poorly maintained if at all (come on, you KNOW none of them even have brake pads), sure understand my rides are going to be "private" and so should your children if you send them out to ride these death traps, it goes on and on and on. The general defense of them here is surprising. But since my extended family here is from another - to be unamed for security purposes but is stil on Negros - small city we have a lot to compare Duma to and we will continue to have ties to Duma although I don't miss it at all. The beaches yeah but that's about it. That other city has real "pedicabs" which are pedal powered and not fume belching wrecks. My father-in-law even drove awhile for a living and I bought him a "private" pedicab for his own transportation along with another 10 speed. Living there for several months I never ran into these other problems and neither did my wife for her entire life.
For that matter in the heavy unregulated traffic and two ways around Duma they seem to be just as slow as pedicabs. Why bother ? Or get the new green electric vehicles like on Boracay. Why not ?
Death Rides a Moto | Foreign Policy

 

I have lived in the Dumaguete area for 8 years, now in Dauin. I drive my truck to town a couple of times a week, and generally park it and leave it until I’m ready to go to Hypermart and home. I walk most places in town, but if it’s too far or too hot to walk, I take a trike. If I’m going to Cebu for a short visit, I often leave my truck in town and take a trike to Sibulan. I agree that they’re dirty and smelly, and I try not to think about maintenance, but I have never had a problem with a driver who appears to be drunk or out of control. Most of the time I find the trikes reliable and quicker, not to mention far less hassle than driving myself. It would be great if they were cleaned up or converted to electricity, but meanwhile, I accept them for what they are, and I’m glad to have them there when I need them.