The jeepney: a history, and hopefully, a future

Filipinos seem to have a love-hate relationship with the jeepney. First, they’re affordable, and routes are accessible. They not only move people, but they carry with them a piece of history and an onslaught of Filipino creativity. Many are colorful and vibrant, personalized by their owners to reflect where they come from, their families, and/or their religion.

However, jeepneys can also be loud, heavy, and emit pollutants. They compete for space, especially in more congested urban centers like Manila, Cebu, and other cities. Accidents happen often, with both private cars, jeepneys, and drivers of other modes of transport trying to avoid road rage and fatigue.

Whether you love them or hate them, or are somewhere in-between, jeepneys have long made an impressionable mark on Philippine culture, heritage, mobility, and especially history.

A brief history of the jeepney

As most probably know these days, the jeepney has its roots after World War 2. When left-over “surplus” or excess military jeeps were left in the Philippines, they were re-sold, and eventually altered locally evolving into the jeepney we know today. I tried to find the origin of the word “jeep,” but it seems that the debate continues.

The word “jeepney” itself might have come from “jeep” and another word for a “rideshare” movement 100 years before Grab and Uber: jitneys. While I was searching online for the etymology of “jeepney”, I eventually read up on some of the predecesors of the jeepney, not only in the Philippines, but also in the United States. Even before the jeep of the American military.

From jitney, to jeep, to jeepney

The word jitney was coined by French-speaking African-Americans in the South, from jetnée. Coin is a fitting word, as jetnée is from the French word for token: jeton. Jitney had a connotation for cheap and was used to mean nickel or 5 cents in those days. The word was in use by the early 1900s, just as car ownership in the US was becoming more popular. Which also meant that the “new” American colony of the Philippines at that time was also importing these cars, mostly owned by Filipino elite by the early 1900s as well.

Meanwhile back in the US, jitney came to mean those “rideshares” I mentioned earlier. New car owners who were suddenly unemployed or needed more money, figured out that they could charge people to ride with them. For a cost of 5 cents, people could ride these jitneys that plyed on specific routes.

Prewar Philippines: the autocalesas and jitneys of the 1930s

In the Philippines, by the mid-1930s, jitneys were already being used. Evidence of this is from this advertisement by Bachrach Motor Company, when it not only distributed various sedans, coupes, and delivery cars during the 1930s, but also, a “jitney” model with an extended passenger area.

By this time, this also meant decreased usage of kalesas or horse-drawn carts as more and more people started using automobiles. Another term for the new public transport cars were autocalesas, merging automobile and calesa. What was also merged was the front portion and chasis (or frame) of an American car, with the rear passenger area of larger passenger kalesas called tarantilla carriages. The word jitney probably stuck around as another term for these cars, but it seems autocalesa or AC might have been more prominently used since the Bachrach vehicles (and possibly other distributors) had the name on them.

So how did we get the jeepney?

World War 2 and the birth of the jeep

As World War 2 progressed in the early 1940s, the US Army began designing and deploying a newly designed four-wheel drive reconnaissance car. It had to be lightweight, flexible in use, four-wheel drive, and rectangular. Car companies such as Ford and Willys-Overland were two of the major contributors.

Around this time soldiers were already referring to the cars as jeeps. Though no concrete reason has been found yet, two prominent theories are afloat. One involves one of the jeeps’ original designations, “GP”, pronounced “jeep”, short for G and P. Officially it stood for General or Government Purpose. The other theory is that jeep is derived from a Popeye character named Jeep that could transport, go through walls, and solve problems. The character was popular during the late 1940s.

Either way, by 1945, over half a million jeeps were built and sent to war all over the world, including the Philippines.

Postwar Philippines: birth of the jeepney

World War 2 eventually brought destruction to many areas of the country, most especially in Manila. After the Battle of Manila in March of 1945, other modes of transport were destroyed, such as the tranvia in Manila and some of its rail system. But like all other unwanted destruction and suffering, there must come rebuilding and creativity. Aside from dust and debris, the war left behind military jeeps, no longer needed by the American war machine. As Filipinos began to rebuild, something new rose from the rubble: the jeepney.

Unfortunately I can’t find anything from the 1940s that explicitly states or shows that the word jeepney comes from the word jitney. Especially since it seems that the term autocalesa or AC might have been more prominently used by the Bacharach Motor Company which distributed some of the prewar vehicles. My only leads are the jitneys that became popular in the United States, and the advertisement above from Bachrach Motor Company marketing a “jitney” in the Philippines.

Jitneys and jeepneys: a service by and for people

Coincidently, I did read up on how jitneys were an endeavor of necessity for poorer Americans. Paying a small fee for jitneys going down specific routes helped drivers who were unemployed, and gave passengers an affordable and oftentimes faster ride compared to other ways of transport at the time. Jitneys were also an essential means of transportation for underserved communities. This was true for Black neighborhoods, where established taxi companies refused to serve or hire from.

This sounds similar to how jeepneys provide transportation in neighborhoods that are not readily accessible by other means in the Philippines, aside from tricycles. Taxis are often not affordable for many Filipinos, but jeepneys are still cheap enough to ride, with routes bringing passengers as close as possible to their final destinations. Sometimes even to the doorstep, if the route runs along a passenger’s street where they work, study, or live.

Today’s jeepney

Almost 80 years after the jeepney was born, jeepneys are still in-use today. They have evolved further with designs varying all over the country, but the essence of taking the front potions of existing cars and trucks and attaching them to passenger cabs with two sets of benches inside continues.

In Cebu, Bohol, and parts of Mindanao, “flat-nosed” jeepneys can be found, made from Suzuki mini-vans and Isuzu Elf trucks from Japan. These are often bigger and taller than jeepneys in Manila. Meanwhile in Iloilo City, frontage of jeepneys resemble sedan cars and are lower.

Many other jeepneys still remain inspired by the US military jeeps used in World War 2. Sarao Motors was one of the major jeepney manufacturers in Metro Manila, making 200 to 300 per year during the 70s and 80s. Most of their jeepneys follow the military jeep-style frontage design with the long extended passenger cabs behind them.

The chassis of a jeepney is made of black iron. A chassis is the base frame of most motor vehicles, and takes on the load of the vehicle. The body panels are comprised of galvanized iron, stainless steel, and aluminum. Most of the materials used in making jeepneys are sourced and manufactured locally.

Jeepneys by the numbers

According to Clean Air Asia, jeepneys carry half of all peak-period passenger trips in Metro Manila. 74 million passenger kilometers are made with jeepneys in the Metro every year.

There are 12.7 million total registered motor vehicles as of 2019, according to the House of Representatives CPBRD, but only under 245,000 registered jeepneys. On top of this, only 47% or almost half of Filipino households don’t own a car, according to a Nielsen survey in 2013. Of 250,000 registered jeepneys, under 55,000 of them are in Metro Manila, shouldering half of all peak-period passenger trips mentioned above.

One can see that a small percentage of motor vehicles, i.e jeepneys, shoulder a large bulk of passengers. Though there are uncounted jeepneys operating without registrations (referred to as “colorum” jeepneys), many people still use jeepneys to get around. The drivers and owners of said jeepneys also depend on the jeeps as their livelihood. In 2019, only around 2,500 unregistered colorum jeepneys were impounded.

The jeepney phase-out plan

The Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program or PUVMP of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) aims to solve the safety, health, and environmental problems that jeepneys have.

It involves updates to jeepney regulation, jeepney route planning and updating, financing, and jeepney modernization among other major components. Launched in 2018 different pilot areas applied the program. By 2020, there were 580 modernized jeepney units on the streets of Metro Manila, and more than 27,600 jeepneys authorized for more than 1,000 routes nationwide.

A “modernized” jeepney is one that is accessible for people on wheelchairs and the elderly, and is also electric powered and/or has a combustion engine that complies with improved emission standards.

Challenges to phase-out

Unfortunately the new jeepneys are not cheap. Depending on passenger capacity, a traditional jeepney can cost between P250,000 to P700,000 according to research by Clean Air Asia. An electric jeepney can cost at least P650,000 to P1 million or more. Jeepney drivers and operators have cited costs of up to P2 million pesos.

Part of the modernization program involves consolidating jeepney drivers and owners into larger cooperatives and corporations. This way any costs for the modernization program could be shouldered by the group, instead of individual drivers and owners. Despite this, there have been delays in bank loans to help bring modernized jeepneys to these organizations. What’s worse, is that the modernization program’s budget was also cut by almost half (47%) in 2019 compared to the year before.

In 2020, the House of Representatives CPBRD found that the program was too focused on replacing jeepneys rather than following a timely-sequenced transition. It recommended that reforms to regulations and route rationalization should have been implemented first, before the modernization of the jeepneys. “This would give stakeholders better appreciation of the program and additional grace period and more time for the operators/drivers to prepare,” the CPBRD report concluded.

In 2021, a previously-scrapped Tsuper Iskolar scholarship of the modernization program eventually assisted more than 20,000 jeepney drivers and operators. This gave them access to TESDA courses including construction and automative repair, giving them an opportunity to partake in new sources of income. Unfortunately I could not find current information on how many of the 20,000 scholars are now successfully undertaking new career paths. This would help demonstrate the effectiveness of this program.

In March of 2023, jeepney groups and advocates started striking against the looming deadline for consolidation due on June 30, 2023. This was the original deadline for traditional jeepneys to consolidate into cooperatives and corporations. After the strike, the deadline was extended to December 31 to allow more time for review of the modernization requirements.

One of the jeepney associations involved in the strike is Manibela, whose president Mar Valbuena expressed that they are, “…at one with the aim of the government to provide a proper, comfortable and safe transportation to the public. We are not going against the planned modernization of the vehicles, we just wish that we do it humanely and justly so that no one gets left behind.”

Future of the jeepney, and moving Filipinos forward

There are obviously many benefits to having modernized jeepney fleets. Improvements in road safety, environmental benefits, and improved accessibility by people of multiple mobilities (i.e wheelchairs, the elderly, disabled). What is at stake however is the access and control of both drivers, owners, and passengers of the 80-year-old transport system that is the jeepney. Passengers surveyed in 2013 referred to the jeepney as, familiar, easy, and cheap, but they also referred to them as noisy, dirty, and dangerous.

One of many solutions could involve applying regulation, modernization, and other policies to private vehicles as well. At the very least in dense business districts in Metros all over the country. Many private cars we see on the road typically carry just one or two people, but take up just as much space as a single jeepney carrying 20 people. This plus improving other ways of mass transit (such as the continuing extension of the MRT), or improving infrastructure for more carbon-free movement like walking and biking can help more and more people move safely and easily.

In April of 2023, ten Metro Manila mayors traveled to the Netherlands, notorious for being home to the “cycling capital of the world”, Amsterdam. Sponsored by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority or MMDA, Metro Manila mayors from Muntinlupa, Quezon City, San Juan, Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Pasay City, Valenzuela, Mandaluyong and Pateros, toured the different bicycle parking and waste facilities of the country for 3 days.

In Quezon City where I use my bike the most, bike lanes were installed during the pandemic, but now seem to be undergoing deterioration and lack of upkeep.

The “Bicycle Parking Ordinance” of Quezon City in 2014, states that “All Major Business Establishments are hereby mandated to provide bicycle parking space with their respected establishments.” With major businesses defined as “…malls, supermarkets, groceries, banks, restaurants and other similar establishments.” Unfortunately not all of these establishments provide secure bike parking for their cycling customers.

Cycling in Amsterdam did not come easy. In the 1960s, more cars were being used which led to fatalities including children. By the 1970s protests and mass demonstrations eventually pushed the government to incorporate bicycle infrastructure. Today the Netherlands boasts 35,000 kilometers of bike lanes and a quarter of all trips are made by bicycle, compared with 5% in the UK, France, and Ireland.

A conclusion with more questions, than answers

Is there a way to achieve improved safety and health, while maintaining accessibility, affordability, and even cultural heritage? Are not all people who desire to move as efficiently as possible, deserving of “familiar, easy, and cheap” ways to move that are also clean, healthy, and safe?

Do Filipino leaders need to travel thousands of kilometers and spend thousands of pesos to travel abroad to “study” how to best improve mobility at home? Why not commute by jeepney and MRT or LRT themselves, and take some notes for just P14 pesos a ride?

In the end, it is up to the people who continue to own and use mass transport, and the powers that be who do not. Perhaps until there is a balance in that area, the future of the jeepney, and the efficient, safe, and healthy transport of millions of people, will remain bleak.