As a daily commuter in Philippine traffic, you can’t help but notice that there are these people shouting out the route of the passenger bus or jeepney that happens to be along and ferries people to these commuter vehicles. These are the people that you call, “the barkers”. They range from men, women and children and their only job for the rest of the day is to call out the routes so that people will get aboard the commuter vehicles. Some are so violent at times when the driver or the conductor doesn’t give them anything after they have called and called out to people. Personally I think that we really don’t need them and that they are just an added expense to the drivers that make their living. I mean, commuters/passengers regardless if they are called out to or not will always ride the buses or jeepneys to get to work and to go home or just to be wherever they want to be. These barkers are sometimes abusive of the drivers. Once I was riding on this bus wherein the barker who was calling out rode inside the bus and would not go down unless the bus conductor gave him 50PHP in exchange for his services. I mean cmon. People will always ride the buses or jeeps whether these barkers call out or not. I think that they just want the easy job hence they resort to this kind of profession which is really not needed at all. People are not dumb and the drivers have their conductors to call out to passengers. So they are just really for me an added expense and sometimes they can be so violent and abusive if not given what they want.
Filed under: Daily Travel Diary, all about the philippines , all about the philippines, bus trips, Daily Travel Diary, philippines, random thoughts
