Traveling around Manila is tiring and costly. This startup aims to make it more bearable

A day’s work is tough enough in Manila. Add to it soul-crushing traffic and overcrowded, stalling trains, and you can imagine what many people have to contend with. Sakay.ph, “the Google Maps or Waze for commuting,” wants to ease the burden of those who are endlessly tired and stressed navigating this urban jungle.

Available on the web and on mobile, it boasts of efficient and comprehensive directions for the metro. Not only that, it also compares routes by duration, number of stops, and cost, and even gives you suggestions on the best public transport system to take at a certain time – be it trains, buses, or jeepneys.

So whether you want to know how to reach your destination without taking the trains or how long it’ll take you riding buses and jeepneys, or simply what traffic is like on the main EDSA thoroughfare, Sakay.ph aims to help you get from point A to point B in good spirits.

Changing perception about commuting

Sakay.ph, a play on the Filipino term for ride, is a product of By Implication, a web and app development company in the Philippines. It was built for the 2013 Philippine Transit App Challenge by Philip Cheang and Thomas Dy, but the team has since grown.

They are among a growing contingent of entrepreneurs who want to help reform public transport in the Philippines.

Rodrick Tan, Sakay.ph’s business development and marketing manager, acknowledges that “commuting is among the hardest things that Filipinos have to go through on a daily basis.”

Until recently, he says there hasn’t been a tool that provides commute directions in Manila. He shares how challenging it was to digitize the country’s “large, multi-modal, and informal” transport network. “Unlike in other countries, our transport system is not as structured. For example, jeepneys don’t have formal stops and the routes change every now and then,” he explains.

The hassle of commuting discourages people from taking public transport – part of the reason for the large volume of vehicles plying the highways.

According to a New York Times report, there are 2.2 million vehicles coursing through Metro Manila every day, and this level of traffic costs the country US$20 billion in lost productivity each year. How do you solve traffic congestion? For Sakay.ph, changing the mindset of Filipinos about commuting may help. “We want to empower people to have a smarter commute through technology and data,” Tan notes.

Sakay.ph is not alone in this space, however. Website and mobile app Trip Barker is also catering to Manila commuters, although it’s mostly community-based, with users sharing route information with one another.

Future plans

For Tan, it’s no longer a question of whether there’s a clear market need for such services. Sakay.ph’s launch on Google Play and the App Store has been met with early success, with the app grabbing the top spots in terms of downloads on multiple occasions.