Pick-up service helps mothers, children

By Lies Sartika

JAKARTA (JP): Tri Murdihariani pulls over, unbuttons her blouse and starts nursing her wailing baby son. In the back of her pick-up van, four preschoolers are busy playing among themselves.

Mrs. Tri is a busy housewife and mother of two who founded a pick-up service for schoolchildren in Pondok Gede, Bekasi.

Since she started the business in 1990, she has been out of the house all day, picking up children from school in the morning, and taking them back home in the afternoon. That's why she takes her baby along with her.

Mrs. Welly Indrahadi Surya, another busy mother/entrepreneur, squats and begins to change the flat tire of her Hi-Jet pick-up van.

Nine children inside the car look on, but don't have time to become impatient because it takes their smiling driver only fifteen minutes to fix the car. Soon the van is on the way again, and the children continue to horse around in the back.

For both two women, necessity was the mother of invention.

Tri started her business after her husband, Mariananto, died in a accident at the mining company he worked for in Kalimantan. "I told myself to get up and survive, for the sake of my two children," she says.

After graduating in 1982 from Brawijaya University's School of Economics in Malang, East Java, and working briefly in Surabaya, Tri stayed at home to raise her children. Shortly after her husband's death, she learned to drive.

"At first, it was only so I could drive my eldest son to school. Pretty soon, some of the neighbors asked me to drive their children, too," Tri says. "So I decided that I might as well start a pick-up service."

She began the business with four preschool kids; their parents paid her Rp 20,000 (US$8.8) monthly. In 1992, 20 children were in her care. Now, her business is bigger; she hires drivers to split the job of driving 150 children to and from their schools.

Mrs. Welly, who also lives in Pondok Gede, started her pick-up service in 1991. She has three sons. By the time the youngest son had to enter kindergarten, Mrs. Welly realized she couldn't afford to pay for another pick-up service as her two elder sons had already taken their school's pick-up service.

Behind her husband's back, she learned to drive and got her license. She then opened her business with nine preschool kids, whose parents each paid her Rp 30,000 a month. Within a year, the number of children had increased to 25.

"I had been working for two weeks before my husband found out," she told me. "He was very upset, because he looked down on women who worked as drivers. I convinced him that I needed to make some money, too".

Not that everything was always easy.

First grade students often seem to be the biggest headache, with their crying, vomiting and peeing in the cars. "Many children don't want to go to school but they have to go anyway," Mrs. Tri says.

What do they do if there are problems with the cars?

"I can fix a flat tire, I can do some minor repair on the engine, which is more than my husband can," Mrs. Welly says. "I take good care of the car. It's not difficult, because I know every inch of this car."

Welly says she learned to carry out minor repairs from a mechanic who comes to check on her car. Sometimes, she accompanies the mechanic to buy spare parts in Senen Market. "I can identify real spare parts from fake ones," she says proudly.

Mrs. Tri can fix a flat tire, but that's all. She says she'd rather take the cars to a service station and have someone else take care of it.

Mrs. Welly now serves 85 students, preschoolers, primary and junior high schoolers. She has her husband's full support; he resigned from his job last year and helps run the business.

She makes around Rp 2.8 million monthly, and spends Rp 1 million on gasoline, repairs and the driver's salary.

With three cars and three drivers, Mrs. Tri now serves 150 children, whose parents pay her between Rp 30,000 to Rp 45,000 (about $ 20). She earns about Rp 4 million, half of which is spent on drivers' salaries, fuel and car maintenance.

Both mothers agree that despite the difficulties, their jobs are satisfying. Being close to so many children makes them happy, and they try to treat all children like their own.

"If one of my sons eats something, I give all the other children the same snacks. I often eavesdrop on them and can't help smiling when the students start talking about girlfriends or boyfriends. I enjoy them," Mrs. Welly says.

"Sometimes I'm bored and fed up with this job, but one look at those eager faces waiting for me to pick them up, and I know I wouldn't want to change jobs," she says.