Crisis puts brakes on minivan drivers' earnings
By Joko Sarwono
BOGOR (JP): Public minivan drivers are hard pressed to make a living on the roads in the crisis, often taking home only enough money to put a bowl of rice on the family dinner table.
High daily rental fees of the vehicles, known locally as angkot, range from Rp 30,000 to Rp 50,000, mean drivers regularly return home with a little cash or empty-handed.
Passengers are also being tight with their purse strings, choosing alternatives to public transportation to cut their costs.
It is a vicious cycle leading at all points back to the economic crisis.
Most drivers identify the culprit as the skyrocketing prices of spare-parts, a knock-on result from the huge loss in the rupiah's value and resulting spiraling costs of imported goods.
Driver Endin told The Jakarta Post the high rental fees sometimes forced him to ask local sidewalk food vendors to keep a tab of his meals until he could afford to pay.
He said he could hardly afford to feed himself, let alone think of the burden of supporting a family.
"In this kind of condition, I cannot even consider marriage. I wouldn't know how to feed a prospective wife," the elementary school graduate said on Friday.
Anto, another driver, said there was nothing unusual in minivans covering 15-km routes with only three to five passengers onboard.
"This lessens our daily income... since most of the day's money is adequate only to cover the rental fees. What's left over is enough only for the day's meals," the driver, a junior high school graduate from East Java, said.
"I could not even visit my hometown during the Idul Fitri holiday to celebrate the festive season... All I did was send a piece of clothing for each of my parents through a friend who went to East Java."
Anwar, a driver serving the Pasar Anyar-Salabenda route, recounted his family's daily menu consisted of rice and salted fish, when he could scrimp together enough earnings.
On bad days, he, his wife and two-year-old child must settle for plain rice.
"The most important thing is that our stomachs are full," Anwar said.
"I bring home as little as Rp 6,000 a day and have instructed my wife to be tight with money and use it as efficiently as possible for our daily needs."
His meager earnings do not cover the unforeseen, such as his child falling sick.
"I usually borrow money for medicine from the owner of the minivan and then pay it back in installments. Sometimes, my boss is so generous that I don't have to pay the money back."
Dadang, who covers the Pasar Sukasari-Cisarua route, complained the situation was exacerbated by protection money demanded by delinquent parking attendants, ticket scalpers and hoodlums at bus terminals.
"These people just don't care... Because of their conduct, some of us are forced to borrow money just to enable us to cover the daily rental fees."
He was also alarmed by last year's closure of several popular discotheques, nightclubs and other entertainment spots in the popular Puncak mountainous resort area.
Muslim preachers and local residents accused them of being fronts for prostitution and illegal drug transactions.
They were shut indefinitely in the wake of various incidents of vandalism, including the destruction of 12 establishments on July 12.
Drivers griped that only slim earnings were now available on the once popular routes to Puncak.
"The number of passengers has dropped by about 30 percent due to the closure," Dadang said. "Earlier, we used to make enough money to pay the rental fees, fulfill daily necessities and, moreover, have something to spare."
Most of the drivers said they could not consider changing jobs because driving was all they knew.
Anwar argued there was no guarantee of finding a job in another field.
"As an angkot driver, at least I know I will be able to buy some rice. I once tried to apply at other places but there were no vacancies at the time."
Dadang also felt his hands were tied. "I might as well drive the angkot. What else can I do?"