Organda regrets its haste in hiking taxi fare

Organda regrets its haste in hiking taxi fare

JAKARTA (JP): The chairman of the Organization of Land
Transportation Owners (Organda), Aip Sjarifuddin, apologized on
Thursday for the organization's haste in increasing taxi fares 50
percent.

He promised that in the future the organization would
coordinate with the City Council before implementing such
policies.

Speaking to journalists, Aip said he realized Organda was
wrong to implement the fare hike without first coordinating with
the City Council or providing sufficient advanced notice to the
public.

"We admit the recent fare increase was Organda's fault," he
said.

He said the organization would meet with the City Council soon
to determine more acceptable taxi fares, and also would notify
the public and taxi operators of any fare increases.

"We will not revise our proposal on the fare hike, but we will
ask the City Council to come up with a more reasonable
calculation of the hike in the upcoming meeting," Aip said.

After months of study, Governor Sutiyoso issued Gubernatorial
Decree No. 2503/2000 on Aug. 22, which allowed taxi operators to
raise the flagfall from Rp 2,000 (about 25 US cents) to Rp 3,000,
and increase the charges from Rp 900 per kilometer to Rp 1,300
per kilometer. The waiting fee also was increased from Rp 10,000
to Rp 13,000 per hour.

After the governor issued the decree, Organda issued a
regulation on the fare hike on Aug. 24, which stated the new
fares would come into effect on Sept. 1, 2000.

This step by Organda appeared to conform with a 1998 decree
issued by the then minister of transportation, which stipulates a
gubernatorial decree is the only requirement needed for issuing a
regulation on new taxi fares.

But opposition from the public and pressure from city
councillors forced the city administration to suspend the
implementation of the new fares.

Following the postponement on Tuesday, officials of the City
Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ) were instructed to crack down
on taxis still charging passengers the new fares.

The chairman of DLLAJ, Buyung Atang, said his staff would not
halt their crackdown on taxi drivers who continued charging
passengers the increased fares. As of Wednesday, around 400 taxi
drivers had been fined, most from the Blue Bird group.

A driver of a Silver Bird taxi, which is part of the Blue Bird
group, said all of the tickets were being settled by the company
because the drivers refused to pay the fines.

"We agreed to give the tickets to the company; we leave it up
to them (management) to take care of the matter. But we do not
know what the company will do about this," the driver, who asked
not to be named, said on Thursday.

The management of the Blue Bird Group declined to discuss the
matter. (dja)