Bus owners told to bring fleets up to standard

JAKARTA (JP): The municipal administration has ordered owners of buses and other public transit vehicles operating in the capital to bring their fleets up to standard to improve service and facilitate traffic flow.

JP Sepang, chairman of the Land Transportation and Traffic Control Agency, said that bringing fleets up to standard is necessary to improving the image of Jakarta in the eyes of the delegates and other guests of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.

"We have ordered all owners of buses and other transportation means to pay more attention to the condition of their fleets, especially their cleanliness," he said.

Sepang told the Antara news agency on Thursday that he has also ordered all heads of the traffic control agency's chapters throughout the city to improve cleanliness in and around terminals and bus shelters, as well as traffic signs.

He said that supervision of the condition of public transit vehicles and of the traffic signs and other traffic supporting facilities is part of the agency's daily operations.

"These operations are being intensified at present in preparation for the APEC meeting," he said.

Herman Tonglo Langi, head of the agency's control and transportation office, said that his office registered 516 traffic violations by drivers of public transit vehicles last month. All of the cases have gone to trial.

"Unlike in September when most violations were committed by bus drivers, last month's violations were dominated by truck drivers," he said.

The violations ranged from exceeding load capacity limits and deviating from designated transportation routes to exceeding the deadline for vehicle roadworthy examinations, he said.

He explained that most violations by bus drivers involved cutting short their routes to avoid entering terminals. Bus drivers are often reluctant to use the terminals because they are forced to wait in a long lines to pick up passengers.

In a related development, Brig. Gen. Dibyo Widodo, deputy head of the city police, said that the public transit vehicles in the city transport at least 4.5 million passengers daily.

"Due to the large amount of the passengers transported by the public transit vehicles, all related parties are invited to pay more attention to the companies' management," he said.

Poor quality

Speaking at the closing ceremony for the course for the upgrading of drivers of public vehicles in Serpong, West Java, on Thursday, Widodo said that improvement of the firms' management is badly needed to enable them to provide better services.

He expressed concern over the poor quality of the management of public transit companies, which are established on a limited liability basis and do not have their own fleets. Most of these firms simply organize bus owners under a loose, umbrella-type management.

Under such a structure, the companies do not have any relationship with their drivers, who are hired by the vehicle owners and are obliged to pay rental fees to them on a daily basis, he said.

Widodo also expressed dissatisfaction over the confusion as to who is responsible for the handling the costs for the operation of the transit vehicle maintenance centers, which are scattered throughout the city.

He said that traffic problems in the capital have become increasingly complicated because the increase in the number of vehicles is not in line with the growth of the population.

"Discipline on the part of drivers is also still low. Most of them recklessly speed and ignore existing regulations," he added. (hhr)