Parking attendants oppose rate hike

The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Parking attendants at city-owned parking operator BP Perparkiran said more transparency and better management at the company was needed before any rate hikes went into effect.

"There should be no increases until someone follows the trail of money to see where it is leaking out," said a parking attendant in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, who asked not to be identified.

The parking attendant, who has worked at the same location in Kelapa Gading for 20 years, said, "If I were enjoying the money, I would be driving a car like my supervisor."

He said that because of the lack of transparency in handling the money collected, even getting drivers to pay the current parking rate of Rp 1,000 (about 11 US cents) was difficult at times. "What will happen when the rate increases?"

Last week, the city administration proposed tripling the flat on-street parking fee from Rp 1,000 to Rp 3,000. Several Jakarta city councillors, however, have made it clear that they would only approve a 100 percent increase, at most. A number of councillors have also called for BP Perparkiran to improve its management before raising parking rates.

Dolan, not his real name, a 45-year-old parking attendant in Gajah Mada, West Jakarta, said: "If there is an increase the money will only be gobbled up by the people at the BP Perparkiran office."

Dolan, who has worked as a parking attendant for 23 years, supporting his wife and five children, said he did not think an increase would translate into more money for him because he would just have to kick more money up to his supervisor.

"So if the fee increases to Rp 2,000, then I will just ask for Rp 3,000 from people. Otherwise, I'd go broke," said Dolan, who has already been charging drivers Rp 2,000 to park for almost two years.

Zaim, 46, a parking attendant in Senayan, Central Jakarta, said that if the parking fee was increased, BP Perparkiran's management would have to be more professional.

"Sometimes our supervisors don't even provide us tickets," said Zaim, referring to the parking tickets given to drivers as a receipt for payment. "When a driver asks for a ticket and I don't have it, I can't make them pay."

Zaim, wearing the official light-blue uniform of city parking attendants, added that the amount of money he had to give to the head parking attendant was not dependent on the number of tickets he handed out.

"I give him Rp 50,000 and get to take home the rest," said Zaim, who makes roughly Rp 40,000 a day.

BP Perparkiran recently announced that last year's revenue from its parking operations totaled Rp 14 billion, not enough to cover its Rp 17 billion in operating costs. It was the sixth straight year that BP Perparkiran suffered a deficit.

Based on the released revenue figures and using the current parking rate of Rp 1,000, on average 38,000 of the 3.8 million registered vehicles in Jakarta used BP Perparkiran's facilities daily in 2004. BP Perparkiran manages on-street parking on more than 500 streets and roads in Jakarta.