Jakartans to pay more to take a cab

Jakartans to pay more to take a cab

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Shocked by the new taxi fares announced on Monday, Monica Chi, a
senior executive with a foreign-based bank on Jl. MH Thamrin in
Central Jakarta, made a quick decision.

"That's too expensive. Tomorrow I will take my own car ... I
have to go from one place to another to meet clients. It would be
too costly if I were to use a taxi as I usually do," said the
resident of Sunter, North Jakarta.

Another regular taxi passenger, Maria Margareta, who works for
a financial services firm in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building
on Jl. Jend. Sudirman said that she had no other choice but to
take taxis.

"I don't want to take any risks by switching to public buses
given that there are so many stories about robberies in buses.
Taxis are still safer than buses despite recent taxi robberies,"
she said.

She was referring to at least 14 robberies of passengers in
taxi cabs over the past two months.

So, if people want comfort on your travels, they are going to
have to dig deeper into their pockets after Governor Sutiyoso
announced on Monday that his administration had approved an
increase in taxi fares amounting to an average of 33.66 percent less than
two weeks after the government raised fuel prices by an average
of 126.6 percent on Oct. 1.

"I have signed a gubernatorial decree on the increases. The
new fares will take effect on Tuesday," Sutiyoso told reporters
at City Hall.

This is the second round of taxi fare increases this year
after the administration had earlier approved an average increase
of 36 percent on March 30.

Sutiyoso said that the hike was necessary to help taxi firms
come to grips with the fuel price hikes.

He said that the new fares had been set based on a proposal by
the Jakarta Transportation Council, whose members comprise
representatives of academia, taxi firms, the Jakarta
Transportation Agency, passengers and non-governmental
organizations.

He added that the new fare structure would act as a ceiling,
with taxi firms being prohibited from charging passengers more.

The hikes are far lower than those proposed earlier by the
Jakarta branch of the Land Transportation Owners Association
(Organda DKI), which averaged 136 percent.

The Blue Bird Group, which operates around 9,000 out of the
total of 21,000 taxi cabs in the capital, said that it would need
some time to adjust meters based on the latest increases.

"The increases will cover our additional costs of more than Rp
600 million per day for fuel and we will likely be able to make a
small profit (after the increase)," company spokesman Riva
Lazuardi said.

However, many taxi drivers oppose the increases, complaining
that they will find it more difficult to get fares amid tough
competition in the taxi business in the capital due to an influx
of taxis from neighboring cities like Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and
Bekasi.

Organda figures show that there are 42 companies operating a
total of 26,000 taxis in Jakarta alone, while in Bogor, Depok,
Tangerang and Bekasi there are 15 more companies running 17,000
cabs, many of which also operate in the capital.