Bus drivers protest overlapping routes

JAKARTA (JP): About 160 drivers of Kopaja minibuses plying the Manggarai-Blok M route in South Jakarta went to the City Council yesterday to complain about an overlapping route with Pahala Kencana buses.

They demanded that the Pahala Kencana bus route, from Blok M to Grogol, be revoked because it overlapped with their route for eight kilometers from Jl. Cianjur to Jl. Kuningan in Central Jakarta.

The drivers went to the council building in 80 buses. Their arrival caused heavy traffic jams in the surrounding area.

The head of Kopaja's operations division, Syarifuddin A.S., said that since the launch of the Pahala Kencana operation last Monday, his company had lost half of its daily net income from the route.

"Our income has plunged from Rp 20,000 (US$7.5) (per bus) to only about Rp 10,000 per day now," he said.

It was hard to meet the daily standard rental fee of Rp 110,000 for an old bus and Rp 115,000 for the better ones, Syarifuddin said.

The operation of the new buses, according to the Kopaja drivers, had not been discussed between the Organization of City Land Transportation Owners (Organda) and the Kopaja drivers' association.

The drivers claimed they had filed complaints to Jakarta's Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ) but no response had been received.

"We have no choice but to go on strike so as to attract the authorities' attention to help us settle the problems," Saroni, one of the drivers, said.

The drivers were received yesterday by Ali Wongso, the head of Commission D for public facilities, Lukman Mokoginta of the Indonesian Democratic Party faction and Sumekar of the Golkar faction.

The councilors promised to take the problems to the council meetings and discuss them with related parties.

The strike ended at about 9:45 a.m. after Ali convinced the drivers that the councilors would initiate discussions soon.

"You have to go back to work after this meeting because we have to think about the suffering of passengers caused by this strike as well," he said.

"Moreover, you will lose your income. Think of your own families too," he added.

Yesterday's strike resulted in hundreds of passengers between Manggarai and Kuningan being delayed.

Ali praised the drivers' good behavior in that they did not cause any damage during the strike.

"Usually this kind of strike leads to a riot and I am grateful to you for your quick report to the councilors," he told the drivers.

DLLAJ's chief J.P. Sepang said that the new routes given to Pahala Kencana were proposed by Organda because of the lack of regular buses plying the Manggarai-Blok M route.

"We can't think only of the sake of the drivers and the bus owners, but also the needs of other people who want cheaper rates from Pahala Kencana's regular buses," he said.

Sepang said that of the eight Pahala Kencana buses, only three were operating in the area.

He said that if this operation tended to cause problems, DLLAJ would review Pahala Kencana's route permits. (07)