Driver reluctant to join bus strike

JAKARTA (JP): A few days after the recent strike by bus drivers, Yusuf, 39, plying a route which begins in Tanah Abang, reflects: "I'm too old for this."

He was reluctant to strike but, as an elderly local Betawi who other drivers look up to, felt it would not look right if he did not join the strike.

Though he understood why his fellow bus drivers marched to the House of Representatives, he did not march with them.

"Where else would drivers go to complain?" he asked.

He personally disagreed with the strike, which was triggered by a new bus company being assigned an overlapping route.

The new company's route was the last straw for drivers who have had to deal with more and more buses on their route.

But Yusuf said the problem was still bearable.

"I have been driving here a long time compared to the others.

"I know that with new buses our earnings have to be divided but there are still lots of passengers," he said.

What's important, he said, is that drivers have told legislators of their problems.

"Surely they'll do something about it?"

If the problem is not settled, he said, there is nothing the drivers could do.

Those who joined the strike, he noted, were mostly young.

"Young, hot-blooded people usually use their emotions rather than their brains," he said.

For Yusuf, "Working like this is my fate. I'll go on even though there are getting to be less passengers because driving is all I can do ... I'm too small to apply for a job as a security guard.

"But what if passengers run away when congestion gets worse?"

Since the early 1980s, he said, the narrow roads from Tanah Abang leading to Kebayoran Lama have become increasingly full.

Traders, employees, house industry workers and students in the area who depend on minivans for transportation are a source of optimism for drivers.

But motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers stand ready to wind through alleys for those who have extra money and no time to spare for traffic jams.

If more minivans are added to the route, Yusuf predicts a day when passengers will leave what bus owners consider a "fat route".

Drivers were angered because despite the added competition, it is up to them alone to make sure they pay their daily rental.

Yusuf now pays Rp 29,000 daily to the bus owner, and takes home at least Rp 20,000.

If he fails to collect enough in fares he can pay the owner the next day.

"But I always try to deliver because if I don't I have to borrow money to pay him, or use money I have saved for my children's education," he said.

Given all the fees to be paid, Yusuf must earn Rp 60,000 to Rp 100,000 a day.

There is a daily fee of Rp 3,000 to pass the Tanah Abang market and another Rp 2,000 to pass through Kebon Jeruk. These are official fees. There are unofficial fees to be paid every time a bus enters a terminal.

The extra fees can amount to a great deal for the drivers.

There are the extra payments to thugs, he says, who expect favors for directing them around U-turns or merely when they want a cigarette.

"They're mostly drunk so I wouldn't dare challenge them, they'd hit me.

"We also have to pay other fees to officers," he said.

A friend of his tried to add them up and came up with Rp 8,000 a day.

If a driver is less acquainted with officials and police it means paying more, especially if one stops near one of the many No Stopping or No Parking signs along their route.

But trusting authorities to deal with the problem, Yusuf says he will just keep working "until I've saved enough for my children's schooling and more capital for our business" at Palmerah market.

His wife earns an average Rp 50,000 a day selling cigarettes, soft drinks and other items at the market.

Yusuf dreams of having a stall in a tent for his wife instead of a mere small bench. "We would have more profit with a larger business," Yusuf said.

He would no longer have to worry about chasing after daily fares while passengers decrease. He said he was ready to face the risk of official and unofficial people preying on more stable market vendors.

"Well I guess that's the way it should be," Yusuf said. (12/anr)