Hello, Jaybee here again. You might be wondering, where do we get information to fill up our bus database? This short blog will explain how we process information to display in our database.
Model Information
For standard models and its subcategories (vehicle model, body, chassis, engine), many of the information is readily available online. For some brands, information comes more easily than others: China brands, for example, usually has almost all the needed information on their websites. In contrast, local body assemblers do not usually post complete specifications, as they vary depending on the chassis used as the base of the bus. Sometimes we stumble upon obscure files that contain the needed information, but most of the time we just have to admit defeat and leave some information blank (not literally blank, as I usually place a “no data” annotation where I don’t know the information). Thankfully, there are a lot of third-party websites that, like us, collect information about engines, bus units, and the like, which we use as reference to many information we share in Bus Database PH. Thus, you may notice that our content is quite similar to others, but that’s the beauty of information, it can be conveyed by anyone for everyone’s benefit.
Route and Bus Information
For the routes, our go-to reference is the government agency in charge of franchising, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). Occasionally, the LTFRB releases public documents that list some routes and/or units as part of new relevant policies or information, which we use as reference to document the existence of such routes and units. For some other routes, the route descriptions printed on the bus units is sufficient for us to define it. It’s just a matter of going outside and seeing things in actual operation, basically.
Information gathering for the bus database is not a one-man job. Behind the scenes, fellow bus enthusiasts provide their help in identifying certain models, routes, and bus units, to provide a more accurate description of everything we encode in the database. This boosts our confidence that what we provide to end-users is genuinely correct. But of course sometimes we slip up because we’re only human, and we apologize if ever you come across few things that need to be corrected.
With so many information in the bus database, you might think we might have a hard time compiling it all, and you may be right. But every patronage of the Bus Database PH makes it all worth the effort. So I hope you support our endeavor in archiving bus photos and information in the Philippines by always visiting our site and utilizing our Bus Database as much as you can! In future blog posts, we’ll discuss some bus-related concepts, so I hope you will all stick around!
