Observer: 20 Per Cent Application Commission Could Discourage Ride-Hailing Drivers from Accepting Orders

JAKARTA – Application commissions reaching approximately 20 per cent are considered capable of influencing the willingness of ride-hailing drivers (ojol) to accept orders.

Transportation observer Deddy Herlambang assessed that such commissions have the potential to make some drivers more selective in accepting work.

“Perhaps the commission from the application operator at around 20 per cent is not attractive to ojol drivers,” said Deddy when contacted, Friday (13 March 2026).

On social media, complaints about the difficulty in obtaining ride-hailing services have indeed been widely discussed by internet users. Some users have even referred to the situation as an “ojol crisis”.

From various information circulating on social media and within driver communities, there are suspicions that this phenomenon is related to an imbalance between the income received by drivers and the operational costs they incur.

Several drivers are reported to be choosing to go offline or declining orders during certain hours, particularly when traffic is severely congested.

Deddy explained that this phenomenon cannot be separated from the position of ride-hailing in the urban transportation system.

According to him, ride-hailing is fundamentally not part of the national transportation system, but rather private transport or paratransit characterised by direct point-to-point door-to-door services.

For this reason, he believes that what is more important for major cities is the strengthening of an integrated public transportation system across different modes.

As a solution, he proposed the imposition of limits on the number of ride-hailing drivers so that a balance between tariffs and the number of drivers can be maintained.

“The solution is to have a quota limitation for ojol so that ideal tariffs can be enjoyed by ride-hailing drivers,” he said.