City fines drivers who deny public fare cuts

Agnes Winarti, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Tue, 02/03/2009 11:20 AM  

A long line of public minivans are parked at Kampung Melayu station in East Jakarta in this file photo. The administrationsaid it would punish drivers who failed to lower their fares following the gubernatorial decree to cut fares byRp 500. JP/Ricky Yudhistira

The minibus assistant rudely shoved another Rp 1,000 bill into the hand of a female passenger waiting for her change. 

But he only did so after the passenger asked him to. 

“Bang (brother),” she said, “hasn’t the fare already been reduced?” 

Similar scenes were still appearing across the city Monday, a week after the city administration ruled for an Rp 500 (4 US cents) cut in public transportation fares. 

The driver of a minibus traveling between Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta and Casablanca in South Jakarta, Dedy, said he had reasons for maintaining the higher fare. 

“There should be a governor decree specifically stating a reduction in the daily fee we have to pay our employers,” he said, Dedy said it was difficult for him to reduce fares because his employer maintained his daily fee of Rp 247,500. 

Last week, the Jakarta chapter of the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) agreed to lower the fees they collected from drivers to allow for fare cuts. 

“All transportation owners will reduce the fee they collect from drivers by 20 percent,” Organda Jakarta secretary TR Panjaitan said. 

“That means, if a driver pays Rp 200,000 each day to his bus owner, he now only needs to pay Rp 160,000,” Panjaitan said. 

“All owners are obliged to do this so their drivers can earn slightly bigger margins. 

“However, many public buses in Jakarta are not displaying copies of gubernatorial decree issued on Jan. 27, in contrast to when fares were increased in May last year. 

Last year, many minibus and minivan drivers instantly stuck up copies of the decree in their vehicles. 

The city transportation agency ticketed 69 public buses of various sizes Monday for not complying with the fare cut. And six drivers were suspended for incomplete documents. 

“We will keep performing the raids until all public bus drivers apply the cut,” land transportation division head at the city transportation agency, Henda Sunugroho, told The Jakarta Post on Monday. 

“We are placing officers at bus terminals in the five municipalities,” Henda said. 

“When a bus arrives, we ask passengers how much they were charged. We then immediately ticket violating drivers. 

Drivers caught violating the decree will have to settle the matter at the district court. 

“We will act on all public reports, as long as the public provides enough information, including bus registration number, route and time the violation took place.”  

The public can report violations through the city transportation agency hotline (021) 3457471. The public can also dial Organda Jakarta hotline on (021) 43900464 or fax (021) 4203357. 

As for taxis, Organda head Herry Rotti told the Post that fares would remain the same.

“We met with all our members [taxi operators] about three weeks ago. We decided not to cut taxi fares,” he said Monday. 

In December, the City Council proposed Organda reduce taxi fares in line with the fuel price cuts. 

Currently, taxis apply one of two rates — “lower tariff” or “higher tariff”. Low-rate taxis charge a flagfall of Rp 5,000 and Rp 2,500 per kilometer, while other taxis charge Rp 6,000 and Rp 3,000 per kilometer. 

The rates were decided by Organda in June last year after the government increased the price of Premium gasoline from Rp 4,500 to Rp 6,000.