Delivery riders have become an essential part of the ‘new normal’. They deliver our food, items from we bought, some even buy medicine and groceries on the client’s behalf. For a large chunk of their daily routine, delivery riders bring items to and from subdivisions where clients and businesses usually reside. This may sometimes include a gate pass for a small fee. In most cases, it will be added to the total fare charged to the client. No problem there.
Unfortunately, a subdivision in Las Piñas is forcing delivery riders to pay a gate entry for every delivery. What's worse is they are prohibited from asking reimbursement from the clients residing inside.
One rider aired his frustration over this policy of BF Resort Village in Las Piñas at one of the delivery riders’ social media pages.
He explains how this is unfair. If for example, PhP100.00 is the total service fee, minus the app’s (Lalamove, Grab, Angkas, MoveIt, etc.) cut of 20% per booking, it only leaves a PhP80.00 pesos take-home pay for the rider. Minus the PhP25.00 non-reimbursable gate fee, that brings it down to only PhP55.00 take-home pay. PhP25.00 may be a small amount for some, but for our delivery riders, that PhP25.00 when added up means less food for the table or infant formula (milk) at the end of the day.
Legality
MotoPinas.com asked one of our friends from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), who has requested to remain anonymous. He said that charging a delivery fee at a subdivision’s gate is completely legal under the agency’s Executive Committee Resolution 001, series of 2017 article III 9.4 (the resolution can be viewed here).
Our insider noted, however, that the fees associated with the delivery of goods must be reasonable and may be reimbursed by the client for “humanitarian reasons”.
When asked if this could be considered an illegal toll fee — which needs the permission and regulation of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) — and hence penalized, our insider noted that the fees collected are only unlawful if it serves as a pass-through ticket. Unfortunately, the riders must enter and exit at the same gate. No pass-through allowed.
“For example, if the guards here (at BF Parañaque) ask for a gate fee at [the] Concha Cruz gate, then this allows the rider to exit at the Lopez gate, that’s the only time it will become a toll fee and it is prohibited.”
Since it is only an entry ticket to private property and riders must exit at the same gate, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the TRB. As our insider stated, it is wholy allowed under the HLURB's Executive Committee Resolution Article IV Section 12.
