Busway wants more women drivers

Busway wants more women drivers

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

If she had her way, Saidah, 35, would like to work as an office
clerk in Jakarta's business district.

Eight years after graduating from Jakarta University's Faculty
of Economics majoring in business administration, Saidah, who is
still single, is now applying for a job as a busway driver.

"I need a stable monthly income and a higher salary because I
have four relatives to support," said Saidah, who has been
working as a marketing supervisor for an insurance company with
an average monthly income of Rp 1 million (US$100).

A busway driver earns Rp 2.1 million per month.

Saidah said that since she graduated she has always sent an
application letter if she found a job suited to her educational
background or ability.

The latest application letter was sent to PT TransBatavia, the
sole provider of the 75 buses used along the busway corridor from
Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota area in West Jakarta.

Transbatavia is a partner of BP TransJakarta busway
management.

Saidah said that being a bus driver was not exactly what she
had dreamed to become, but she was applying for the job anyway as
she wanted to get a higher salary and fixed monthly income.

"I have never been happy with the jobs I have had because I
did not get a fixed income," she said.

She said that with her current job she sometimes did not have
any income at all in a month. But, if she was lucky she could get
Rp 1.5 million a month.

Saidah is a resident of Tebet Barat subdistrict in South
Jakarta and lives with her stepmother, two married sisters and
one nephew, who are all jobless. Her mother and father have
passed away.

Saidah said that she had been working for a private company as
a marketing officer since the 1990s and driving small trucks was
part of her job.

"I hope I will get accepted as a busway driver so that I can
support my family," she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

TransBatavia is currently opening job vacancies for women
drivers and it has so far received 15 applications since it
advertised the job two weeks ago. The company plans to accept
applications until the end of December.

Company spokesman Ajar Aedi said that TransBatavia aimed to
recruit 30 more women drivers for the busway buses.

Currently, only nine of around 100 busway drivers are women.

Ajar said more women drivers were needed because based on an
evaluation of the nine women drivers, their performance was
superior to the men drivers.

"For example, women drivers generally will respond positively
to any complaints from passengers," said Ajar, adding that the
new women drivers would join the nine other women drivers, who
were employed along Corridor I.

According to Ajar, TransBatavia and TransJakarta busway
management wanted women to account for 30 percent of the total
busway drivers.

"We also open up the opportunity for those who are interested
to work as busway drivers for Corridors II and III," he said.

Corridor II runs from Pulogadung in East Jakarta to Harmoni in
Central Jakarta, and Corridor III from Harmoni to Kalideres in
West Jakarta. The two busway corridors are expected to be
launched early next year.

Ajar said that all potential candidates would be trained for
three months before they started work.