City parking attendants against hike

The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Parking attendants working for the city-owned parking operator BP Perparkiran, said that more transparency and better management was needed before any rate hikes went into effect.

"There should be no increase until someone follows the trail of money, to see where it leaks out at," said a parking attendant in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, who wished to remain anonymous.

The parking attendant, who has worked at the same location in front of a bank for 20 years, said "If I were enjoying the money, I would be driving a car like my supervisor."

He added that because of the lack of transparency in handling the fees collected, even getting drivers to pay the current rate of Rp 1,000 (about 11 U.S. cents) was difficult at times. "What will happen when it increases?"

Last week, the city administration proposed tripling the flat fee on-street parking rate from Rp 1,000 to Rp 3,000. Several Jakarta city councilors, however, have made it clear that at most they would approve a 100 percent increase. A number of councilors have also called for BP Perparkiran to be more transparent.

Dolan, not his real name, a 45-year-old attendant at Gajah Mada, West Jakarta, said: "If there is an increase, the money would only be gobbled up by the people at the BP Perparkiran office."

Dolan, who has been able to support his wife and five children by working as a parking attendant for 23 years, said that based on his experience, an increase would not translate into more income for him as the amount of money he had to store to his supervisor would automatically rise.

"Hence, if the fee increases to Rp 2,000, then I'll ask for Rp 3,000. Otherwise, I'd go broke," said Dolan, who has already been quoting drivers a Rp 2,000 fee for almost two years.

Zaim, 46, who is a parking attendant in Senayan, Central Jakarta, said that if the fees were increased, BP Perparkiran's management would have to be more professional.

"Sometimes our supervisors don't even provide the tickets," said Zaim, referring to the parking tickets required as receipt for payment "When a driver asks for a ticket and I don't have it, I can't demand payment."

Zaim, wearing the official light-blue uniform for city parking attendants, added that the daily amount he had to hand to the head parking attendant was not dependent on the number of tickets handed out.

"I give him Rp 50,000 and take home the rest," said Zaim, who makes roughly Rp 40,000 each day.

BP Perparkiran recently said that last year's revenue from its parking operations totaled Rp 14 billion, not enough to cover its Rp 17 billion operating costs. It was the sixth straight year that BP Perparkiran experienced a deficit.

Based on the revenue figure released and using the current rate of Rp 1,000, on average 38 thousand of the 3.8 million registered vehicles in Jakarta used BP Perparkiran's facilities daily in 2004. BP Perparkiran is tasked by the Jakarta governor to manage on-street parking on more than 500 roads in Jakarta.