The Difference Between beep and BeepRides Cards, Explained

In case you missed it, the Department of Transportation recently began implementing the contactless-payment policy on the EDSA Busway, and frankly, things haven't been sailing smoothly ever since. As of October 5, it has been suspended until further notice.

Apart from the mad rush among commuters to procure tap-to-pay cards, there's another issue in this whole automated fare-collection system fiasco. Apparently, there are two cards available, with similar names and even colors, but for different purposes: beep and BeepRides.

A commuter by the name of Kristina Conti shared her experience on social media. She was surprised to find out that e-jeepneys are actually using BeepRides, a card that's different from the beep cards being used in the EDSA Busway system.

A BeepRides card costs P150, and comes with an initial load of P50, while the beep card costs P30 in the train stations and P50 outside the train stations, and the initial load should not go lower than the minimum fare (P12 for the LRT lines).

Inevitably, it's caused a lot of confusion among the public-transport riding public. In an effort to get to the bottom of the issue, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran has made some clarifications and confirmed that these two cards are, in fact, different.

beep cards, as mentioned, are used in the EDSA Busway. These are also the same cards that have been used at all MRT and LRT lines for several years. BeepRides, on the other hand, is being used by some bus and modern PUV operators, and according to Libiran, "has totally nothing to do with beep."

In her statement, Libiran also mentioned that the automated fare collection system (AFCS) is chosen not by the DOTr, but by the operators themselves. Also, there is no specific system required—the important part is that a contactless payment system will be set in place. "Kaya nga meron din pong mga PUVs na gumagamit ng GCash, PayMaya, Squidpay, QR Code, among others," she said. You can read the official Facebook post below:

Now, we don't know why on earth these two cards had to be named—and designed so similarly, but we hope these statements clear things up a bit. The long-term solution seems to be for the DOTr to be the one to prescribe which contactless payment system to use for all modes of public transportation to make life easier for the public. We're sure one of their brilliant minds would come up with that solution eventually too.