Driving not as easy as it used to be
Driving not as easy as it used to be
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In an effort to improve the quality of drivers in Jakarta, the
Jakarta Police have vowed to tighten the procedure in obtaining a
driving license for new applicants.
"As a consequence, the ratio of new drivers passing the test
will drop from 800 out of 1,000 applicants to only 600," said the
Jakarta Police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Ishak on
Wednesday.
He explained that the tougher procedure would start from the
administrative selection, particularly the applicants' age as
many fake their age when applying for a license, medical
examination, written test on traffic regulations and a driving
test.
"For example, now we are using a color diagram to check for
color blindness. We did not use that before and sometimes our
officers were not disciplined in conducting the test," he said.
Sulistyo said that the city police had not yet conducted a
study on the relationship between the quality of drivers and the
number of traffic accidents.
"Some research shows that accidents are largely caused by
drivers' lack of discipline. However, we must not dismiss other
causes," he said.
Driving license applicants must apply and undergo the tests at
the Driving License Service Center on Jl. Daan Mogot, West
Jakarta.
The service center is notorious for its corrupt officers and
omnipresent middlemen who try to profit from applicants who
choose to skip procedures.
Each applicant need pay only Rp 52,500 (US$6.1) to apply for a
license, Rp 20,000 to rent the car for the driving test and Rp
5,000 for the medical examination. However, many applicants
prefer to use the services of middlemen by paying between Rp
150,000 and Rp 200,000.
"We have seriously tried to curb the use of middlemen. We
restrict non-applicants from entering the service center
building," Sulistyo said. "Of course, middlemen are still
wandering about outside the building, but they cannot go any
further than the front office where people fill in the forms."