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Working with the Poor for One Day:

My experience as pedicab driver in Legaspi City, Albay Province, Philippines

By
Hermann Waibel, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
(on secondment at RSDD, ADB) 1

Background and Motivation

“If one does research on poverty, it is good to sometimes get a feeling of what it’s like!”

This was my motivation to work with the poor for one day as a pedicab (called: pad yak
in the Philippines) 2 driver in Legaspi City, the home town of my wife, in the province of
Albay, Bicol region, Philippines. She had arranged for my use of the pedicab from the
neighbor of her brother. That man has two pedicabs and is working part-time as
“padyak” driver, aside from his job as carpenter. He takes some kids to school and
accepts special trips on request. I started my work on Saturday, December 11 at 9:15
a.m., and ended at it at 4:30 in the afternoon. My first passengers were my wife and her
little niece whom I took from the house of her brother to my taxi stand location in front of
the hospital. I charged her half price!

I speak some Tagalog (and very little Bicolano) but Tagalog was just good enough to
get along. As an experienced biker, it was no problem for me to operate the pedicab for
the seven-hour job. I could have done the 12 hours which “my colleague drivers” were
doing. However, the rain intensified strongly in the afternoon. I had no proper rain
protection clothes and it was starting to get dark. By about 3:00 p.m., I was soaked wet
all over. And, well, after all, I do not have “five hungry children waiting for me at home”,
like some of my pedicab colleagues do! I also had exceeded my “self-set target
earnings” of Php100 at around 1:30 p.m. I did not have a lunch break (some of my
colleagues obviously went home for lunch), just bought some bananas, peanuts and
Coke from “sari-sari” (small retail) stores along the way when riding back empty after
delivering a passenger (what I consumed would have “eaten up” about 20 % of my total
earnings! See below). Anyway, I did have a healthy breakfast in the morning before
starting. My job as “pedicab driver for one day” was a learning experience and great fun
too.

In the following, I describe the process and my experience of driving, provide some data
on the pedicab business in the province of Albay and draw some conclusions and
recommendations for pedicabs as green jobs for the poor, also making some
comparisons with motorized tricycles.

1
The author is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Director of the Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics at the
School of Economics and Management, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Mailing Address. Königsworther Platz 1, 30167
Hannover, Germany. Tel.: + 49 511 762 2666; Fax: + 49 511 762 2667; email: waibel@ifgb.uni-hannover.de
2
Pad yak is a Tagalog word that means to kick, referring to how drivers operate their non-motorized, bicycle-driven pedicabs.

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Process
In this section, the process of the work is described. This includes a description of the
location, the technical conditions of the pedicabs, an indicative profile of the drivers, the
reaction of passengers and my income flow.

Taxi stand

My waiting area was in front of a private hospital in “old Albay district” in the north-
western part of Legaspi City. There were between 10 and 15 pedicabs lining up at a
time. The first cab would park in right angle to those in line in order to facilitate boarding
of the passengers. Once the first cab left, the next in line would turn his bike with the
cabin facing the main road to facilitate passengers boarding. Arriving cabs would fall in
line at the end. The cabs would park “wheel to wheel” making maximum use of the
space. There was no dragging or fighting for space, everyone seemed well disciplined.
The taxi line, which was not an officially designated taxi stand, could accommodate a
maximum of perhaps 20 cabs. However, sometimes cars would park forcing some of
the pedicabs to wait on the other side of the road. Car drivers had no respect for parking
space of the pedicabs whatsoever with a seemingly strong correlation between
ignorance and size of car.

The location was effective in attracting passengers. People would come out of the
hospital and take a cab. A main road with jeepneys loading and unloading passengers
was just 15 meters away, separated by a bridge running over a small creek. A few (3- 5)
motorized tricycles were waiting opposite the hospital, some 15 meters away from the
pedicab stand. Depending on the time of the day, between 30 and 70 % of the cabs
were on the road. Some cabs would return empty to the stand immediately; some would
wait in the side roads of the housing areas to pick up passengers who were heading for
the main road to catch a jeepney.

The bikes

Most of the pedicabs used by the drivers in my taxi line had small wheels (BMX type
bikes), some had a roof for the driver, and some had a stick for hooking up an umbrella.
My pedicab was an ordinary bike with 28 inch wheels; the passenger cabin had a roof
but there was no roof for the driver. Having a roof for the driver’s protection from sun
and rain has pros and cons. You cannot fully stand up in order to step more forcefully
into your pedals in case of going uphill for example. Most bikes had no roof for the
drivers but had a device for umbrella. Some of the younger drivers just would not mind
the rain. None of the pedicabs had any lighting; some drivers would have flash lights
though.

My bike was in poor condition; on average, poorer than those of my colleagues. The
pedal was loose and running uneven. The saddle more or less was a broken piece of
plastic and the tires had no profile anymore whatsoever. The brake, which was a piece
of rubber hooked to the hind wheel and to be operated by pressing down a sort of
pedal, was practically ineffective. To use the brake one needs to lift the right leg away

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from the pedal. An alternative way to slow down is to simply press a feet against the
backside of the front wheel. This worked better than using an over-sliced piece of
rubber.

Generally, operating a pedicab is not too demanding. The only start-up difficulty was to
get a good feeling for the width of the bike with the cabin on the right side when turning
around or changing lanes. It is quite different from riding a bike which reacts more
directly to any movement you make. This is a bit different with the pedicab! It takes a
little while to get used to and you need to be more concentrated (I might have scratched
the bumpers of at least two parked cars when forced by head on traffic to suddenly
steering to the right. Luckily, the Legaspi drivers seem to take bumpers for what they
really are, unlike in Germany where people think a bumper is their car’s jewelry! One
car driver though, blew his horn and waved his hand - seemingly not in pure friendship -
upon noticing a little tremble on his car. I heard the all too familiar sound of “iron-
meeting-galvanic-cheek-to-cheek”, but it was too late… :-)

The pedicab drivers’ profile

When I arrived at the taxi stand in the morning with my two passengers in my cabin I
was informally introduced to the crowd of pedicab drivers. They obviously had been
informed before. So it was not too difficult to get accepted by the riders. Also, since I
wore old jeans and was dressed in a worn-out blazer and had a blue cap on my head,
with my “Filipino height” (5’6”), I did not look too much like a typical foreigner. That
certainly helped. I just lined up in the queue and the owner of my bike was parking
behind me with his second cab. Once my turn came and I had to load on my first real
passenger, he followed me with his cab to make sure I would not lose my way. There
was some cheering from “my colleagues” when I took off for my “maiden ride”. After the
third or fourth passenger, I told my “bike lord” that I could handle the business by myself
now. He seemed happy to be released from his guarding job. After two hours or so, I
was just like a normal member of the group and I could chat with them while waiting in
line.

Although rather imperfectly, I can draw some indicative profile of the pedicab drivers in
Legaspi. Most importantly, all pedicab drivers are men. Their age ranged from about 20
to 60 years, majority was perhaps between 30 and 40. Most of them were from the
barangays around and lived in houses nearby. Some came from nearby towns like
Tabaco (20 km) or Daraga (10 km). The time they worked in the job varied too and
seemed uncorrelated to age. For example, a 60-year old guy was a former member of
the Philippine army who retired five years ago. Another guy was just one year in the job
and was working as a construction worker before, which he said was too unstable for
him. A third one did pedicab for 20 years already. They generally looked healthy with
the usual strong legs of bikers. Striking were the extremely poor conditions of their
teeth, some of them had just very few left. Most of them wouldn’t eat anything while
waiting they just had a bottle of water which they brought along with them. However,
most of them would smoke a cigarette (costing up to Php 2.00 a stick) while waiting for
passengers. I noticed only one driver who was obviously drunk at around 2:00 p.m.

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Many of them had lunch at their home and then would return. Some would disappear for
quite a long time and some only showing up in the afternoon. Generally they said that
Saturday is a lean day because no office and most schools closed 3 . Education of the
pedicab drivers was mostly only up to the elementary level. Most of them spoke some
English but only few would speak it well enough for conversation.

Waiting time was generally a boring affair. Some of the drivers would be singing songs;
one of them had a small transistor radio as additional service for his customers. There
was one exception though. Around noon time a woman came with one of the pedicab
drivers and opened her shop stand on the other side of the road, opposite the pedicab
line. The woman was between 35 and 40 years of age, friendly and quite good looking.
She had a frying pan and a cooker and started to prepare fried banana and sweet
potato. She also sold other small items like candies and individual cigarette sticks. The
woman seemingly was “the mother figure” of the pedicab drivers as she would chat and
joke with them while they were waiting for customers and of course, they would see her
every day. After watching her work for a while and exchanging a few smiles with her, I
approached her and ordered fried bananas for all the drivers. She happily said “Merry
Christmas” and started to work immediately. One order was Php 7.00. My total bill in the
end was Php 231. As the news of “free fried bananas” was spreading, the number of
pedicabs increased to a total of 33. Before I left my job at around 4:30 I gave her
another Php 200 and asked her to buy local Gin, called "Ginebra San Miguel Quatro
Cantos” for her “pedicab boys”. I told her to do it in the late afternoon to reduce the risk
of “drunken pedicabs”. She promised me she would do as I told her. “What about the
change?” she asked. “Keep the change na lang”, I said. The pedicab drivers earlier had
asked me to buy some “pulutan” for them and they suggested buying barbecued dog
meat at Php 300 . But I declined for …well…”animal rights reasons” (although I must
admit that I had often eaten dog meat on my assignments in the Philippines and in Viet
Nam).

Passenger profile and anecdotes

My passengers were mostly women and mostly young (< 25, I guess). Many of them
came from the jeepney stop and used the pedicab to be taken to their homes. The
distance generally varied from 500 meters and 1.5 km from the jeepney stop. Many of
them went to a Mormon church about 1 km away from the pedicab stand. Some women
returned from shopping with big bags which they kept on their laps. Their destinations
generally were the better houses in the area but it was rarely the outstanding ones. This
suggests that the very poor walk the remaining distance from jeepney to home, while
the middle class takes pedicabs and the rich come by car. Motorized tricycles are for
the farther away distances ranging from 1 km to 5 km. Pedicabs rarely go more than
two km. There were only one or two elder men among my 20 or so customers.

Most passengers would not take any notice of the pedicab driver just getting in to the
cab that was lining up at front. It may be an indication of the low social status of the
pedicab driver. But when on the road some noticed and showed surprise: “Oh, you are
3
It is possible that they chose alternate locations to wait but I am not sure about that.

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a foreigner! They asked me why I am doing this. I said it is for exercise and for
experience, a reason which seemed acceptable to them. Some were a bit worried that I
would not find my way. But I just asked them: “Derecho?”, “Kaliwa?”, “Kanan?”. Upon
reaching the destination I would always give my customers a candy, which they usually
answered with a big smile. About half the passengers would be happy to talk; some
would keep quiet during the entire trip. One lady customer was quite interested to talk
with the “foreign pedicab driver” and kept on asking questions and telling stories. Upon
reaching the destination, my phone was beeping and I told her, “please wait, I will give
you candy”, scratching in my pocket to find a candy. But she jumped out of the cabin
running away and shouting back: “Huwag na, text mo, asawa mo!”. She was right; it
was really my wife sending me SMS!

Cash flow

I had about 20 or so rides, with sometimes one, sometimes two and sometimes three
persons. If it were three, it was mostly a mother with small kids in my cab. The rate is
Php 5 per person per ride. But I did not charge full for the very small kids. The distance
normally did not matter but getting onto the main road (officially not allowed) yields Php
10 per ride. One guy wanted to walk away without paying but I told him: “Ano pare!
Bayad mo! Tatlong Piso lang!” So he gave me the three Pesos that I charged for the
ride. In total I made close to Php 160 (less than $ 4) on that day. From the earnings,
one has to pay what is called “the boundary” of Php 40. I asked my fellow drivers to
whom they would have to pay this. What I understood was it is the barangay office but
not so sure about that 4 5 . Anyway my “bike lord” would pay that, I gave him Php 200 for
his cab, more than what he would have made.

The cash flow was rather uneven. Between 9:30 and 11:30 in the morning, I had made
five trips and earned Php 40 (so I made the “boundary” in 2 hours). There was a peak
around noon time when people would come home for lunch. There was another one at
around three when some of the schools closed. Reportedly, there would be another
peak at around 6 pm but I stopped working around 4.30. When I passed at around 7.30
in the evening by car, there was still one pedicab waiting at the stand. Obviously this is
a possibility to raise the daily earnings by perhaps Php 20 to Php 30.

Data
In the following two tables some basic data on the pedicab business (table 1) and some
indications of the tricycle business in Albay are provided.

4
The recipient of the payment of the “boundary” is not so clear. Some said they have to pay it to the owner. But most
colleagues said that they owned their pedicab but nevertheless have to pay. In addition they have to pay for their
license and registration for an amount of Php 500 per year.
5
If it is Php 40 per day for the owner, the pedicab would be paid in less than one year (see table 1)

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Table 1: Basic data on pedicab business in Legaspi City, Albay province

No Description of Item Unit Value
(Pesos)
1 Price per ride on side road (in housing Person (passenger) 5
area)
2 Price per ride on main road (actually not Person (passenger) 10
allowed)
3 Boundary day 40
4 Price of new pedicab piece 12 000
5 Cost of Spare parts - tire piece 250
6 Cost of Spare parts - chain piece 120
7 Estimated earnings of a pedicab driver on a day 350
good day
8 Estimated earnings of a pedicab driver on a day 220
bad day
9 Total distance per day by a pedicab rider Km/day 30 - 60
10 Estimated Number of pedicabs in Old Albay pedicab > 300
District of Legaspi City
Source: own observations, casual interviews with pedicab riders, interviews with
relatives

Table 2: Selected data on motorized tricycle business

No Description of Item Unit Value
(Pesos)
1 Price per ride (short distance) Person (passenger) 7
2 Price per ride (longer distance) Person (passenger) 10 - 20
3 Boundary day 100
4 Price of new tricycle piece 75 000
5 Cost of Spare parts - tire piece ??
6 Gasoline consumption Liters per 100 km ??
Source: casual interviews with pedicab riders, interviews with relatives

Economic Assessment
Pedicabs in Legaspi City are a near perfect market. No one can easily go ahead of the
other one. It is all organized by falling in line. There was no real soliciting of passenger
other than sometimes a gentle whistling behind some “well-proportioned”, “tight-panted”
or “short-skirted” girls. They would offer them, like: “Iyo, pad yak gusto mo?” It perhaps
would also not make sense to engage into a ruinous competition with the other pedicab
drivers. The social peace seems to be worth more than a few Pesos advantage that one
could possibly get. The only way I could get a higher fare was by accepting driving jobs
on the main road, which most of my colleague riders would decline because it is
prohibited (risk of being caught by police with paying fine equivalent to half a day’s
income) and also more risky with the heavier traffic.

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There is potential however to improve maintenance of the bikes which could save them
energy. Most of the bikes are not well maintained and some oil on the chain or fixing a
pedal could do a lot of good. Better regulating air pressure in the tires would be another
possible improvement. Maintenance of the brake and simple lightning could improve
road safety.

Main lessons for development

Pedicabs are green jobs for the poor. They may be viewed as a sign of
underdevelopment by many who would see the conventional development path to start
from: walking Æ animal traction Æ bicycle Æ motorcycles Æ cars 6 . However, bicycles
and pedicabs could have a future in promoting eco-friendly urban settlements. What
could a development organization do to promote it? I would see perhaps four
intervention points:

1) Increase awareness among the drivers for benefits of better maintenance;

2) Explore the possibility of installing gears (perhaps Php1000 investment). This
would widen the range of the pedicabs to hilly terrain and wider distance due to
faster speed;
3) Explore the possibility of introducing “pedelecs” (e-bikes). There are now kits
available costing around $500 for self made conversion of ordinary bikes into e-
bikes. In this way, the pedicabs could well compete with tricycles that consume
fuel and produce noise.
4) Improve road safety by road regulation, such as bike lanes (see Marikina district
in Manila or Viet Nam as examples).

To get a pedicab “green jobs for the poor” project off the ground, one would need to find
an “eco-champion”, perhaps a mayor or “barangay captain” who would want his area to
be developed in an environmentally friendly manner. Also, a modern pedicabs transport
concept could perhaps be facilitated by more investments in bike lanes under the
slogan “bike to work for better health!”

Any relevance for ADB?

Perhaps there are some ADB staff who has (or who would want to make) similar
experience in working with (instead of for…) the poor as I did. Of course this could be in
different areas (street vendor, health, extension worker, planting rice, etc). Perhaps
such stories and experiences could be collected and put together in a book. This may
be useful for better understanding the lives of the poor and may help ADB’s image in its
member countries and beyond.

Just an idea!
Salamat po!

6
In May 2010, I did a 2 000 km bike tour (using my racer street bike) through Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Seeing me on my bike a
young Vietnamese woman asked me what country I am from. “Germany,” I said.” Ha,” she answered, “I thought Germany is a
highly developed country?”” Yes, that is correct”, I said. “So why do you use bicycle? We in Vietnam consider the bicycle to be
among the lowest level of development.” Then I told her: “at the very high level of development you go back to bicycle because of
environment and climate change.” “Oh, I learn something from you,” she said.