UPCAT Reading Comprehension practice question 2: According to the passage, how do most jeepney drivers relate to the vehicles they operate?

Few objects carry as much civic meaning as the jeepney. Assembled from surplus military chassis after the war, it became the cheapest way for millions of commuters to reach work, and its hand-painted panels turned each unit into a moving signature of its owner.

The case for replacing the fleet is not hard to state. Older units burn diesel inefficiently, fail emissions standards, and lack the structural features that would protect passengers in a collision. A newer vehicle would cut both particulate pollution and injury rates.

Yet the arithmetic falls unevenly. A modern unit can cost twenty times what a driver earns in a year, and most drivers do not own the vehicle they operate. They rent it daily, surrender a fixed sum to the operator, and keep whatever fares remain. A financing scheme calculated against a stable monthly salary does not describe their situation at all.

The question, then, is not whether the fleet should change. It is who absorbs the cost of changing it. A policy that improves air quality while pushing thousands of drivers out of the trade has not solved a problem so much as relocated it onto the people least able to carry it.