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AFTER
failing to convince existing truckers to modernize their
respective fleets, government-controlled Development
Bank of the Philippines (DBP) said it asked shipping
companies to encourage their partners to tap loans
alloted for the purchase of brand-new trucks.
Corazon
D. Conde, the bank’s senior vice president, said last
week discussions are ongoing between them and other
shipping lines, such as the Magsaysay group, to
replicate the arrangement it undertook with Aboitiz
Transport System Corp., the operator of the SuperFerry
vessels.
“We are
hitting two birds with one stone with this facility
because we are targeting both the former overseas
Filipino workers and the small and medium businesses,”
she said in a Friday press briefing.
According to the program, the state-led lender has
allocated a credit facility for companies interested in
acquiring trucks that can be accomodated on roll-on,
roll-off (RoRo) vessels.
Besides
being able to cover 90 percent of the cost of brand-new
vehicles, the loan carries an interest of 8.5 percent
per year and is payable in five years.
However,
one of the loan requirements is an assurance from the
company that the trucks will be driven or operated by a
former overseas contract worker who, in turn, should
have a five-year employment agreement with the shipping
company.
In March
the DBP began its program by releasing the said loans to
the drivers of 2Go, the Aboitiz firm’s logistics unit.
Within
three months, 160 new delivery vehicles worth an
estimated P170 million entered the RoRo fleet of 2Go,
thanks to the lender’s credit window. Among the very
first companies to avail of the DBP facility are Mardy
Marketing Trucking Services, Caelp Trucking Services and
PWR.
“2Go
hopes that through this program, another 200 trucks will
be added to the RoRo fleet,” the company said in an
earlier statement.
Since
late 2005 various government agencies have advised
existing trucking operators to modernize their fleet—by
tapping existing credit windows such as those of DBP’s—to
incur more efficiency in its operations and comply with
the anti-overloading law.
But many
operators have either failed to get the loans or shunned
the idea of borrowing as they lack basic documentary
requirements needed.
Last
year transport officials had meetings with the United
States Agency for International Development for a
possible grant to educate truckers on accessing loans to
modernize their equipment.
Trucking
operations in the country remain mostly a backyard
business and many companies do not even have a tax
identification number.
As a
result, these entities have resorted to more expensive
“alternative” financing schemes to fund theirs
refleeting programs. |
