We answered this question in our personal finance feature today:
Question: I am one of the thousands of people who live in Quezon City but work in Makati City. That means I drive some 20 kilometers to work every day, and that’s just one way. I tried commuting but it’s impossible during rush hour. With the price of gasoline going up, travel to and from work makes a huge dent in my budget. Is there any relief in sight for us? – Josephine P.
We all will have to deal with the rising cost of gas, whether or not we are from Quezon City, Bulacan, Cavite, Cebu or Davao. The most terrible forecast I have heard so far is for a full tank to cost P30,000. That’s almost the take-home pay of senior call center agents.
Full tank at P30,000? Goodbye car, hello MRT for many middle-class families. I see a lot of them in the MRT, even now. You can sense which MRT commuters used to bring a car to work. Pretty soon, Josephine’s “impossible” may turn to “no other choice.”
I like the sneaky tricks to save on gas:
- Lighten up the trunk. More weight in your car trunk will make your car work harder, using up more gas.
- At the gas pump, don’t top off the tank. The excess gas may spill and will amount to waste. Just stop filling at the automatic level.
- When parking, choose a shady spot to prevent gas from evaporating under the heat.
- Fill up your tank in the morning or evening when the air is cooler. At midday, gas may expand due to the heat and you will end up getting a lesser amount of gas.
One oil company has seen an opportunity in this crisis. Seaoil is offering a price lock prepaid card at P1,070 for 20 liters, or P53.30 per liter. They are selling the card only from June 10 to 16.
Good or bad deal?
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My article entitled “Inflation, your nest egg’s silent assassin” came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (print version) yesterday. It has a link where you can download the retirement worksheet from Augustus J.V. Ferreria.
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For those who are interested in learning about investing in the stock market, the Philippine Stock Exchange has a seminar called “Demystifying the Stock Market” on June 19, 2008, 6:00 to 10:00 PM, at the Trading Floor of the PSE Centre, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For more information please call the PSE Senior Specialist/Project Head at 6887537 or 9130054.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:12 am
[...] Bargains in surprising places [...]
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 am
[...] your tire pressure. This tip, I got from a reader over at Inquirer’s MoneySmarts blog. Apparently, you can get more gas mileage if your tires are properly [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
This string caught my attention, but still a little surprised there isn’t as many comments as I expected. I’ll keep checking back since this is a hot topic for me personally.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Nina,
Thank you for the info you share but I still think trains will be cheaper if you compare the cost of un-subsidized train ticket from say Baclaran to North Ave vs the cost of a car ride on a normal traffic. This is on one person to one person comparison and not a family of 5 buying 5 train tickets vs riding a car.
And yes I think trains has less pollution (and not no pollution) if you compare the carbon footprint of train passengers vs if they just ride cars/busses/jeepneys against the pollution generated by the train power plants…
June 12th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Paetechie was right. There were several trains projects in the pipeline but implementation is very slow. Relocation of informal settlers is really a problem for every government project. It’s very complicated, sometimes the government and the lender have different policies.
MRT/LRT is very close to my heart. Five years ago, I was working in a government oversight agency and among the projects I was focusing on are the MRT/LRT Projects. We were pushing for single ticketing system then and the fast-tracking of train projects in the pipeline like South Rail (Phase I Rehabilitation of existing PNR line up to Laguna), North Rail (Phase I from Caloocan to Bulacan), Line 6 of LRT (Baclaran to Cavite), Line 7 (I think this one is from QC to Bulacan), possibility of linking North Edsa and Monumento, possibility of travelator from MRT G. Araneta Station to PNR Sta Mesa Stations. We gave those color codes to MRT/LRT calling MRT-EDSA the blue line and LRT1 yellow line and so on. Sadly, that oversight Office was abolished now.
But even without an oversight office pushing to speed-up projects, I hope that all rail projects in the pipeline will be implemented. Train projects are quite expensive and budget is always a problem in our country. Government projects are complicated to implement and the politics get things more complicated.
June 12th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Omski, I agree trains are efficient and it can ease congestion but I disagree that it is the cheapest and it has less pollution. Trains aren’t really cheap, it seems cheap because it is subsidized by the government plus convenience makes it a cheaper alternative. Less direct pollution but I really wouldn’t say less pollution. It uses electricity and how that electricity is produced would determine the amount of indirect pollution these trains are contributing. Sorry for being too technical. I am an environmental consultant and I can’t help not to correct the notion that because the trains has no emissions means no pollution.
No, I don’t think gas companies gives payola (personal thoughts). It’s win-win for them. Train uses electricity and many power plants uses oil to fire-up their plants. I would say the lack of support of government Officials is the main reason why the train system did not develop. When I was working in the government, I’ve met some LRT/MRT employees. According to them, during the Marcos time, even before LRT was constructed, the government had a Master Plan for developing the train network in Manila. Just imagine if those trains were built according to that Master Plan, we probably don’t have to face the traffic problems we have. Anyways, past is past, just wanna share it.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
there’s already a plan for that: the controversial northrail that’ll pass by bulacan…the so called MRT 7 to san jose del monte (but as always the government’s too slow) going to North EDSA
southrail going to calamba is also moving with the relocation of “informal settlers” along the tracks delaying construction (due to that stupid lina law)
Southrail and Northrail will also be inter-connected
SLEX will also improve once completed
and lastly, the construction of LRT-MRT link starts today…i foresee traffic to get worse during construction right smack on the road I take everyday
June 12th, 2008 at 11:23 am
@crystalballs, i manage to escape the rush hours because i work from home and i choose malls for meetings like EDSA Shangri-la and Greenbelt. Trinoma sometimes too, hehe. But during rush hours, you really just have to cross your fingers and wish that your face is not shoved into someone’s armpit.
one time when hubby’s car was being fixed, he took the MRT home and the guard almost had to push people in so that the train could close. two gays kept shouting “sige pa, sige pa!” it dissolved everyone’s crankiness hehehe.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:17 am
@carlo, thanks for pointing that out. 18,000 can buy lots of shoes, bags and kikay dresses!
June 12th, 2008 at 11:16 am
omski, north of manila seems to be a much better alternative these days huh? NLEX is so much better than SLEX. i agree about the trains. i know some senior management people who take their people with them and have last minute meetings on MRT on their way to Ortigas or QC.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Time to expedite the extension of train routes further north and south… it is the most efficient and cheapest transport system , less polution, no traffic…it is really a mistake our previous and current leaders took the trains for granted in place of more cars, jeeps, buses on the roads…there must be somekind of “payola” from gas companies vs mass transport system that is why our trains did not developed as a better transportation alternative.
Manila is already congested, people now live north, east , south of the Metro but work in Manila..I work in Ortigas but live in Calamba, I spend almost 20-22% of my take home pay in gas and toll alone esp. the gas prices goes up every week…if there is an efficient train system I will just park my car in the nearest station and ride the train to work…those with office fuel allowance are really lucky!
June 11th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
you forgot to add another simple way to save gas - keeping your tires inflated.
To everyone who wants to save gas/money (and as an added bonus, Mother Earth), check this website.
http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/tire_pressure.htm
Says you could be wasting as much as 340 liters per year if you drive on soft tires (assuming 12,000 kms/year). That’s 18,000 pesos on today’s gas prices!!!! Crazy!
June 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Karen, I noticed that too. perhaps we can make some wort of an “online” monitoring of gas prices at various gas stations.
carlo, yup. it’s too deep, burns additional gas, but at least my company’s paying for it
regarding the mrt/lrt, that MRT north avenue station’s choking edsa in the morning with people occupying half of edsa (when mrt use crowd control instead of deploying more trains). I will again encounter that tomorrow when i take the mrt since my car’s banned due to number coding…free rides in MRT tomorrow, btw, during rush hours
June 11th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
“If the current MRT/LRT fare is not enough to upgrade the trains, maybe they should see other sources of income, like advertisements onboard trains.”
Well, if you notice, MRT and LRT already have advertisements as a form of additional income. Even their tickets have some advertisement in it.
Maintenance and operation of trains are quite expensive. Nevertheless, more frequent trains during rush hours would be good. Trains are usually full during rush hours only and this is true even in other big cities like Paris, HK and NY.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
People can also propose a work-from-home agreement with their employer. Some people I know have done this with success - even if it’s only working from home two days out of a week. The savings in gas, food, and clothes alone might be worth it.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
the only solution I can see is longer trains! I think the MRT and LRT trains are just too short/small for the present number of commuters.
Trains here in Singapore are 2-3 times longer that what we have in EDSA and I think we have more commuters.
If the current MRT/LRT fare is not enough to upgrade the trains, maybe they should see other sources of income, like advertisements onboard trains.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Wow Paetechie, your basement parking must be huge - a 500M driveway! Hehehe.
Carpooling is definitely the way to go - I think ALL company HR offices should start carpool programs.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Did you know that gas prices differ from one location to another? A few days ago, unleaded gas in Shell and Caltex Congressional Ave. in QC cost P55.07 per liter. Driving down EDSA toward Ortigas on the same day, I noticed that it’s P53.07 in Seaoil and Shell EDSA before GMA7. Then when I reached Shell Meralco Ave. in Pasig, it’s back to P55.07. At Shell on Kalayaan Ave. in Diliman, it was P54+ per liter. The next day, I filled up my tank at the EDSA gas station.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:34 am
“Goodbye car, hello MRT for many middle-class families. I see a lot of them in the MRT, even now. You can sense which MRT commuters used to bring a car to work.”
But is mass transport really a viable alternative to taking a car to work here in Metro Manila?
I’m amortizing a sizeable amount of money because of the difficulty of taking public transportation to Makati but with soaring gas prices, i’m now caught between a rock and a hard place.
EDSA’s MRT is just too damn crowded!
Outlook: Its possible that illegal shuttle services (FX) will sprout in new locations.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Owning a car now becomes a lifestyle rather than necessity. Buying a car now becomes a question of having a budget for fuel everyday. You cannot convert to AUTO LPG either as their price increase together with fuel prices, so this is not a long term solution and we will eventually see AUTO LPG hitting 50/li. I disagree taking off the VAT on OIL. Higher oil prices mean higher VAT collection, so the givernment must use this for affordable or mass transportation. We may soon become the next Singapore, everyone dependent on mass transportation and cars are for rich people only. The government will soon have to provide subsidized bus and jeeps aside from more MRT/LRT lines. The problem is MRTs capacity to fit in more people, so bigger trains to consider.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Good option is to join a car pool or live near your work. You can also work on flexi time if allowed. Instead of going to work at 8, go to work at 6:30 and go home earlier than 5 pm. Or if you usually go home late, go to work at 9 am and go home after the rush hour.
Grabe, hindi na ako nanonood ng news - nakakadepress kasi eh at baka mamaya ang bumulaga sa akin eh P100/L na.
Dito pataas din ng pataas ang bilihin hindi ko na nga ma-track. Everytime punta ako sa grocery iba ang presyo. Good thing, hindi pa nagtaas ang gasolina - it’s still 22 US cents per liter
June 10th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
i’m one of those people living in QC and working in Makati driving 16.5 kms per day (the 0.5 km is the downward spiral of my basement parking). my last full tank was at P2052 from less than P2k a few weeks back.
I was offered 10% ethanol fuel but i turned it down even if it’s cheaper for i still need to find out how it will affect my car.
it’s good that i have a monthly gas allowance from my company in liters and not in absolute amounts so i’m somehow insulated from rising gas prices except when i overshoot the preset allowance.