PPD may make profit with express fleet
PPD may make profit with express fleet
JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned bus company, Perusahaan
Pengangkutan Djakarta (PPD), would make money and avoid financial
losses only if it scraps aging buses and operates more express
air-conditioned ones, an expert said yesterday.
Herdjan Kenasin, the president of the Jakarta-based Trisakti
Transport Management College, told The Jakarta Post that the
express fleet is easier to control than a regular one, which
forces bus crews to rent and cram public buses with as many
passengers as they can.
It is common practice here to execute the so-called `setoran'
payment in which a vehicle owner leases his car to a driver who
in turn has to pay a certain amount of money per day.
Herdjan underlined the importance of employing professional
managers to run the company to help improve both its financial
performance and public services, rather than just relying on
mediocre government officials.
"But we just cannot blame former executives of PPD for its
rundown performance," he said, adding quickly that PPD slowly was
drowning due to acute mismanagement following the company's
acquisition of financially-troubled private-run companies in the
1970s.
He said the merger had burdened PPD with enormous debts as
well as a fleet of aging buses along with their crews.
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said on Tuesday
that PPD is the only financially-troubled state-owned enterprise
of 17 companies under his supervision.
As of this year, Haryanto said, the PPD had suffered Rp 14
billion (US$6.7 million) in financial losses, far above the
accepted level of Rp 1.9 billion.
"If we don't stop it, it will possibly reach between Rp 16
billion and Rp 18 billion at the end of this year," the minister
said in Bandung, West Java on Tuesday.
As if referring to the poor management, Haryanto reshuffled
the top management of the PPD earlier this month, inducting Brig.
Gen. (ret) Soedarko as its new president replacing Col. Yahya
Subandi.
Another serviceman, Col. Djatisantoso, as well as Nur Usman,
Prijo Soebiandono and Anwar Delmy, were inducted as PPD managers,
respectively, in charge of operations, finance, technique and
general affairs.
The new management has not been available for comment over the
past two days.
Herdjan, himself a former senior official of the ministry,
declined to comment about the outgoing as well as the new line-
up.
Idle
He just said that PPD failed to maintain all its burdens over
the last two decades due to a lack of professionalism and poor
law enforcement. "It's better for the new team to concentrate on
operating more express air-conditioned buses," he reiterated.
In a related development, city councilor Muhammad Rodja
questioned the management of PPD when confronted with the fact
that one third of its 1,400-bus fleet are now idle.
Official data say that PPD's total fleet consists of 1,400
buses but sources close to the PPD estimate that PPD operates
only around 900.
"The standard for the number of vehicles being repaired is
between 10 and 15 percent of the total fleet. PPD's maintenance,
which reaches over 30 percent, is too high," Rodja said
yesterday, adding that Jakarta still needs thousands more public
buses.
Without feeling surprised, Herdjan simply said the number is a
good reflection of PPD's sickness, adding that to repair all 300
requires a huge amount of money.
Yahya Subandi, the former president of PPD, said that the
current assets of PPD reach to more than Rp 100 billion with 15
bus stations throughout the Greater Jakarta area.
Yahya was starting to privatize parts of the company's
operation before he was replaced by Soedarko. (09)