PACHAO, Diane Blake B.

Transportation Law 3-B

Position Paper: Are Uber and Grab considered as Common Carriers?

Uber and Grab are online transportation network companies. These

companies provide mobile apps which allows consumers to travel by just clicking

the app and getting a ride by a driver in the vicinity. The vehicles which are used

in these companies are diverse such that anyone with a car can just apply as a

driver to the company to provide transportation services. The consumers may pay

for the services by cash or by credit cards.

The Civil Code defines common carriers as persons, corporations, firms or

associations engaged in the business of carrying or transporting passengers or

goods or both, by land, water, or air, for compensation, offering their services to

the public. With the definition alone, it may be sufficient to assume that Uber and

Grab are classified as common carriers because they are corporations which are

engaged in the business of transporting passengers for compensation.

To be qualified as a common carrier, a person must first possess these

characteristics. First, he must be engaged in the business of carrying goods for

others as a public employment, and must hold himself out as ready to engage in

the transportation of goods for persons generally as a business, and not a casual

occupation. Second, he must undertake to carry goods of the kind to which his

business is confined. Third, he must undertake to carry by the methods by which

his business is conducted, and over his established roads. Lastly, the

transportation must be for hire.

PACHAO, Diane Blake B. Transportation Law 3-B

These companies are mobile app companies hence they do not employ the

people who applied as drivers. Drivers only work when a consumer decide to use

the mobile app to avail of transportation services. The company merely operates

to connect the driver and the consumer and not to directly transport consumers.

So these corporations are not engaged in the business of carrying goods for

others as a public employment rather they provide luxury to people avails their

services.

Although the services offered are for hire, these mobile app companies also

do not only operate in places where the business is confined. This is because a

customer may access the app anywhere using his smartphone. The drivers

provided by these companies are also not bound by any method or route to which

they will deliver their passengers as long as the passenger gets to his destination.

Uber and Grab cannot be classified as common carriers because it lacks the

characteristics provided. These are mobile app companies so they offer services

through the use of smartphones and not of vehicles. They are companies which

provide accessibility to transportation services by connecting the driver and the

passenger through their app.