With all the surge of complaints about Grab after they took over the operations of Uber, here comes a sudden influx of new Transport Network Companies (TNC) who wants to take advantage of the vacuum left by Uber.

Arcade City, which was earlier issued a cease and desist order by LTFRB, has announced in a blog post that they are activating an application that will try to cover the space vacated by Uber in the Philippines.

 In their announcement, Arcade City says they are not a TNC, but merely an application platform for those who want to become TNC’s but do not want to develop their own mobile application. This sort of confused me so I asked for a personal interview from them. But they are not based in the country but in California.

Another TNC, U-HOP, which has been sort of active since 2016 is relaunching their operation on April 16, 2018. Their announcement has a tag that says “Due to Insistent Public Demand” they will “compete and offer affordable TNVS service to the public starting 6am” of the said day.

U-HOP announcement sent to Autocar PH Sunday afternoon, April 15, 2018.

U-HOP called on all TNVS drivers to go and apply to them and they will not charge for application.

I have not heard of any “insistent public demand” for them specifically, though the demand for a replacement for Uber has gone louder ever since Grab drivers have returned to the old taxi driver habits.

But the biggest problem of U-HOP is that their certificate of accreditation with LTFRB expired last March 11, 2018.

U-HOP accreditation certificate, also sent to Autocar PH with activation date of March 11, 2016 and validity of two years after.

LTFRB Board Member Atty AIleen Lizada has earlier said that four TNC’s have applied for accreditation but they are still processing the applications and her office will announce soonest when this happens.

The four TNC’s being processed are Picar, Lag Go, Owto and Hype.