Ride-hailing Crisis: Drivers Reluctant to Accept Orders During Peak Hours Due to Long Distances and Traffic
JAKARTA — Multiple ride-hailing service users have reported difficulty booking online motorcycles taxis (ojol) approaching the time to break the fast.
One ride-hailing driver, Ivan (37), revealed that passengers frequently struggle to find drivers because many opt to stay parked during peak hours. “Passengers find it difficult to get a driver because the pickup distance is far and the drop-off distance is far,” Ivan said when met near Cawang Sentral transit station on Thursday (12 March 2026).
“Yes, sometimes there are drivers nearby, but passengers can’t get them, and instead get drivers who are far away, which sometimes makes them decide to stay parked,” he explained.
He elaborated that despite peak hours, there is no surge in earnings, so drivers prefer to wait and find passengers who are nearby to avoid heavy traffic. “The fares now have an economy option. There’s no surge. Usually when it’s busy like this there would be a surge. Now it’s economy, so there’s no surge,” he said.
According to Ivan, drivers receive around IDR 10,000 for distances of approximately 4 to 6 kilometres, even when traffic is congested.
Another ride-hailing driver, Roman (27), echoed similar sentiments. He disputed the assumption that the number of ride-hailing drivers decreases during peak hours before breaking fast. “It’s not that orders don’t come in, they come in but we won’t be able to deliver, won’t be able to pick up. Because it doesn’t make sense if the pickup point is 3 kilometres away and we haven’t even got to the drop-off yet,” Roman said.
“We wait for the right one, we wait for one we can actually pick up. It’s also tedious to go far, wastes fuel, wastes time, but the fare is only IDR 10,000,” he added.
On social media, complaints about difficulty finding ride-hailing services have been widely discussed. Some users have even described the situation as an “ojol crisis”.
From various information circulating on social media and driver communities, suspicions have emerged that this phenomenon is linked to an imbalance between driver earnings and operational costs. Drivers believe that long travel times are not commensurate with the fares they receive.