Blue Bird group inspired by a fairy tale

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Some people have been influenced by the fairy tales they read in their childhood to the point where they can never forget them. That is the case with the founder of the Blue Bird Group.

Mutiara Fatimah Djokosoetono chose the name for her company from a story about a blue bird answering a poor girl's wishes for a better life.

Indeed, her wishes came true.

The Blue Bird taxi company, which received a government license on May 1, 1972 for the operation of 25 taxis, has experienced formidable growth. With 8,000 employees and a fleet of more than 4,000 air-conditioned vehicles, Blue Bird claims to serve around two million passengers per month. It has to turn down more than 1,000 of the 5,000 orders it receives by phone per day.

The Blue Bird Group deals not only with land transportation, but also industry and property. It also has a division dealing with CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), a freight container service and a cargo warehousing and forwarding center.

It all started after Mutiara's husband, Djokosoetono, the first dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Law, died in 1965. Mutiara, with the help of her three children, sold farm- fresh eggs for a living. Later, they also sold batik. But that was not enough. So they decided to operate their two second-hand cars as taxis.

"We became involved in the business because we had to eat," Purnomo Prawiro, one of the children, said.

Purnomo and his brother, Chandra Suharto, who were both students at the University of Indonesia, were the first drivers of the family's taxis, while their mother and sister, Mintarsih, were busy with taxi management and administration.

Their first customers were foreign journalists staying at downtown hotels, Purnomo, now Blue Bird's director of operations, recalled.

Before he started driving a taxi, Purnomo was a bemo (three- wheel motorized public vehicle) driver.

Purnomo graduated from the university's School of Medicine in 1974 and practiced medicine in Bogor, West Java. In 1991, he decided to devote all his time to Blue Bird.

Today, the company faces stiff competition from 27 other taxi companies operating in Greater Jakarta.

"Our goals are to achieve customer satisfaction and to develop and defend our position as market leader in every category in which we compete," the 50-year-old Purnomo said.

Blue Bird has received several awards, including the Asian Management Award for operations management in 1995.

The Blue Bird Group's land transportation division offers passenger services, which include Blue Bird, Silver Bird Executive, Golden Bird, Golden Bird Bali, Bali Taxi, Big Bird, and Gamya taxis. It also has a container cargo company called Angkutan Kontenindo Antarmoda.

The Silver Bird Executive taxi service was established with the purchase of 240 Nissan Cedric Saloon cars, which were originally used to transport delegates during the 1993 Non- Aligned Movement summit. The Rp 12 billion (US$5,010,438) deal excluded the cost of radios and other start-up charges.

The Blue Bird Group's property division owns a four-star resort: the Rp 24 billion Holiday Inn Lombok.

"We will start building another hotel in Bali this year," Purnomo said.

There are three companies in its industrial division: Restu Ibu, a bus body manufacturing company; Ziegler, a high-tech fire and rescue truck plant set up under a joint venture with a German company and Everlite, a company which produces vehicle light bulbs for Indonesia's growing automotive industry.

Its services division include Gas Biru, the first CNG agent for all of Indonesia, and PT Jasa Alam, which supplies petrol and CNG needs and operates petrol and CNG stations in Jakarta. The stations are open 24 hours.

"Our core business is still in transportation," Purnomo, a father of three, said.

Warehouses

Currently, Blue Bird is developing an up-scale hospital in Bali, aimed mostly at expatriates. According to Purnomo, there is a lack of modern health facilities in Bali.

The company also plans to build more warehouses in the city and expand its taxi business to other provinces, such as Bandung and Surabaya.

"It's not difficult to expand the business, but the problem is how to maintain and expand on the company's sound condition," he said.

In the long term, Purnomo plans to improve the company's communication system and simplify its administrative process.

"I hope Blue Bird will have a paperless administration process in the future," Purnomo said.

Blue Bird claims to be the first taxi company to implement the strict use of meter, use radio communications and operate air- conditioned cabs.

Blue Bird, Purnomo said, provides its employees with above- average standard wages, bonus plans, incentives, health coverage, uniforms and recreational activities.

He said the company applies a commission system which ranges from 10 percent to 40 percent. For example, a driver who earns Rp 50,000 or less gets a 10 percent commission, but those who gets Rp 110,000 or more, will receive a 40 percent commission.

"With the commission system, the drivers will always bring money home," Purnomo said.

The company also offers incentives to drivers who reach a minimum target of Rp 2.5 million up to Rp 3.3 million per month. The incentives ranged from Rp 100,000 to Rp 220,000.

Blue Bird's Automatic Number Identification (ANI) system enables its drivers to quickly respond to an operator's call through the ANI bid box installed in every taxi.

It also has a data bank that contains information about its regular customers such as addresses, preferred services and other requirements.

"The data enables us to minimize complaints to our customer care division," Purnomo said, adding that the complaints were mostly about turned down orders.

The company has more than 30 support outlets throughout the city. The taxi pools are located in nine areas of Jakarta.

To maintain the security of the driver and the passengers, Blue Bird equips each ANI with a hidden alarm and microphone. If the system is activated, operators can monitor the taxi's location.

"One of our drivers was robbed recently. We were saddened by the news," Purnomo said. The driver was killed and the company decided to take care of the driver's three children until they reach 17 years old, he said.

Despite better incentives and protection, Purnomo admitted that some of the company's drivers have moved to other taxi companies. "It's not a problem for us," he said.

The company is selective with the recruitment of its drivers, and applies strict regulations. It monitors the meters carefully.

"Following the first three months of employment, only half of our new drivers remain with the company," Purnomo said.

The Blue Bird taxi company charges the highest minimum payment for orders by phone -- Rp 8,000. The other taxi companies charge around Rp 5,000 for this service.

"We set a high minimum payment so only people who really need taxis place orders," Purnomo said.