Website links car owners to commuters<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Some may prefer to take it to the streets, while others just
\ngrumble about rising transportation costs as they fill up the
\ntanks of their gas-guzzling cars.<\/p>\n
But for Tangerang residents Rudyanto and his fiancee Sylvia,
\nthe recent fuel price hike has prompted them to set up
\nwww.nebeng.com, a website aims at linking people who need rides
\nto those with cars so they can share -- or nebeng -- a car to
\nand from work on Sept. 28.<\/p>\n
\"Day after day we are stuck in heavy traffic on our way to and
\nfrom work, while we see that cars in front, beside and behind us
\nare often empty of passengers,\" Rudyanto said.<\/p>\n
To date, nebeng.com has 1,360 registered people who needed
\nrides and about 560 people who provide vehicles. It is not clear,
\nhowever, how many were successful.<\/p>\n
\"Many people providing vehicles only want women passengers for
\nreasons of safety,\" he explained.<\/p>\n
The website gets a lot of criticism and suggestion and
\nwww.nebeng.com also provides a forum for members to share
\nexperiences and interact with one another.<\/p>\n
A registered member, Hidayat Tjokrodjojo, through the forum
\nsuggested that the nebeng custom would be more successful if
\npeople working at the same office or those living in the same
\nhousing complex can be convinced to use car pools.<\/p>\n
\"The success of these car pools can be posted on
\nwww.nebeng.com to encourage others to do the same,\" Hidayat said,
\nadding that spacious office parking areas could be utilized to
\n\"pool\" people waiting for rides and those providing them.<\/p>\n
Rudyanto stressed that a lot of money and fuel could be saved
\nif those empty cars were utilized to transport passengers --
\npaying passengers -- going the same way as the driver.<\/p>\n
\"Our idea was that instead of driving two empty cars, people
\ngoing to and from work just share one car and save 50 percent on
\nfuel costs,\" Rudyanto, who works as a web developer, told The
\nJakarta Post.<\/p>\n
The government raised fuel prices by an average of 126.6
\npercent per litter on Oct. 1 after oil prices surged to over
\nUS$70 per barrel on the international market.<\/p>\n
The price of Premium gasoline, for example, increased from Rp
\n2,300 to Rp 4,500, while diesel rose Rp 2,100 to
\nRp 4,300 and kerosene from Rp 700 to Rp 2,000 per litter.<\/p>\n
Almost immediately after the fuel price hike, the city
\nadministration increased transportation fares by up to 58
\npercent.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) declared recently
\nthat the fuel price increase has driven up Jakartans' household
\nspending on transportation and has gone beyond its recommendation
\nof 12 percent of their total income.<\/p>\n
YLKI said that transportation spending of Jakartans rose to 20
\npercent of household spending with the increase in fuel prices
\nrecently.<\/p>\n
The idea of sharing modes of transport to and from work is
\ncertainly nothing new to Jakartans, most of whom daily commute
\nfrom housing complexes outside Jakarta proper into the capital.
\nJakarta's day time population balloons to 12 million people, and
\nfalls back to about 7.5 million at night, giving a good
\nindication of the numbers of people to commute.<\/p>\n
One only has to stop by the area around the Jakarta Police
\nHeadquarters in South Jakarta at five o'clock in the evening,
\nwhen offices close, to note lines of private cars offering rides
\nto Tangerang, Bekasi, and Depok. More often than not, these so-
\ncalled omprengan drivers are also office workers who just want
\nsome company and a little extra cash for their way back home.<\/p>\n
The problem with omprengan, of course, is safety, both for
\npassengers and the driver.<\/p>\n
For this www.nebeng.com has a solution. \"We provide columns
\nfor mobile phone numbers, telephones or e-mail on registration
\nfor both people offering a ride and those who need one,\" Rudyanto
\nsaid, explaining that in this way people can first personally
\ncontact and screen those they want to share vehicles with.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/website-links-car-owners-to-commuters-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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