Organda welcomes hike, no hope of better service

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Public transportation owners in the city have been proposing a fare hike, but they are reluctant to improve services to passengers. The poor service is worsened by the fact that the vehicles are also in poor condition.

Putu Wirta Antara, executive of the Jakarta Land Transportation Owners (Organda), claimed on Saturday that public transportation operators have no other choice but increasing the tariff due to the hike of prices for spare parts.

Otherwise, some public vehicles would be out-of-order.

"Forget the idea on improving services. If the city administration approves our proposal, the increasing income can only be used to survive. If we still have to improve our service (from the hike), the number of vehicles would decrease," he told The Jakarta Post.

Organda has been proposing a tariff increase between 10 and 50 percent recently. Public minivan maximum fares are currently Rp 1,400 (US cents 14), regular buses fares are Rp 900 and air- conditioned bus fares are Rp 3,300.

Putu also claimed that operators could not afford to buy spare parts, the prices of which have increased by up to 30 percent. Some spare parts vendors, however, revealed that, since July, they have yet to increase the price.

Currently, there are over 20,000 public vehicles -- from minivans, minibuses and buses -- are running here. Most vehicles have been used for more than 12 years.

In a bid to survive, operators have to deploy fake spare parts, or repair the broken vehicles to local garage. An action that has worsened the vehicles' condition day by day.

Organda chairman, Aip Syafiruddin, claimed the fare hike proposal was an idea from the drivers.

"The drivers have suggested on proposing for a fare hike. They have been complaining on the dropping earnings due to the fuel price hike," he said.

The truth was the fuel price hike has never bothered the bus drivers. The increasing rental fee did.

"Bus owners had increased the rental fee from Rp 300,000 to Rp 400,000 a day since December," Manurung, a bus driver plying Blok M - Kalideres, groaned.

A driver is only responsible for buying the fuel, but the maintenance is the vehicle owner's responsibility.

"We don't mind the fuel price hike because we only spend an additional Rp 15,000 per day for 150 liters of diesel fuel. But we can't afford the rental fee increase," Manurung said.

The city administration, which is supposed to be in charge of managing the transportation system in the capital, has failed to manage the issue seriously.

It has kept promising to improve the city transportation system, including replacing the old vehicles with the new, imported ones. Up to today, the promises have never been met.

The administration has mostly approved the proposal from Organda to increase the fares instead of improving services to passengers.

Last year, it gave a green light to Organda to increase the fare up to 40 percent following 20 percent fuel price increase.

The City Transportation Agency has always claimed that public transportation operators would increase its services after the hike. However, passengers must always deal with the poor service.

Some transportation experts and consumer bodies have repeatedly called on the administration to improve the city's transportation system, including the vehicles' conditions.

Passengers, they said, deserve to feel comfortable yet safe transportation as they are tax payers.