Run-down taxis and rogue drivers

JAKARTA (JP): Arriving home from a trip overseas I stepped out of the Soekarno Hatta International Airport to find myself without a means of transportation back to town.

Hot, sticky, and jet lagged from the trip, I had expected to jump into a decent air-conditioned taxi and ride home, free from hassles.

Unfortunately that was not to be the case. After surveying the taxi queue I was dismayed to find that the multi-colored taxis lining up at the airport's entrance all had a sinister look about them.

Battered, weather-beaten taxis, driven by sloven drivers, their shirts unbuttoned, looking as weather-beaten as their vehicles.

Still I looked around, waiting for something better. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Several prospective taxis just whizzed away without stopping.

A glimpse of hope came with the slowing down of what seemed to be a relatively new cab. I started to hail the cab, but a whistle from a security guard quickly dissipated that hope.

"Miss, that's not allowed!" he said as he quickly motioned the cab away. I looked on in annoyance, wondering why it was forbidden to ride in a decent looking taxi.

Finally I braved the taxi queue with its scruffy-looking drivers. One of them approached and asked where I was going. I told him my destination and he said, "it would have to be borongan (a price settled upon after bargaining) miss, no meter. It'll cost Rp 70,000 (about $6.45) including the toll fee."

I frowned; not only was the fee too steep for my destination, as far as I knew, taxis without meters were illegal. I refused, frowning. By that time I was not only annoyed, but also close to tears. I had been standing around for close to 15 minutes!

As the night drew on without any hope of finding a decent ride, I again braved the taxi queue, noting beforehand that the cab driver who had tried to offer me a ride with a borongan price had driven off with an unlucky victim.

The next cab in line was pretty clean from the outside, and the driver did not try to shoot me with outrageous prices.

I stepped in, told him my destination, and he presented me with a surcharge ticket for Rp 10,500 to be paid on arrival. I was speechless.

I sat back, trying to calm my mind, convincing myself that it was just one of those days.

Suddenly a baby cockroach scurried past me, just missing my hand on the car seat. I half shrieked. The driver never took any notice.

I ran my eyes all through the interior of the car, watching in dismay as another baby cockroach approached my feet. I stamped on the little bugger but it was too fast. Baby or not, a cockroach is not my idea of a fun travel companion. Aarrrggggghhhhhhh!!!

Since there are many decent taxis driving around in the capital I wondered why none were ever available at the airport; the very gateway to Indonesia, where foreign tourists make their first impression of the country.

Do we really want to give an image of battered taxis, on top of the already damaging image of riots and bickering among us?

On another such trip, I left Soekarno-Hatta by literally outrunning a security guard to a cab that quickly drove off before I had the door properly shut.

The chagrined guard gave the cab a vicious bang on the door with his nightstick as a parting shot.

I felt like a crook hightailing it from the scene of a crime.

As I found out, taxis without an authorized airport sticker weren't allowed to pick up customers there. Unfortunately, those that do are dubious and aren't very presentable.

"If we get authorization, the other cabs won't have a chance (to compete against us), miss," the driver told me, explaining why there were no decent cabs at the airport and why he had to play cat and mouse with the security guard.

So there was this discrimination that forbids popular cab companies from having airport authorization and stealing a piece of the pie from the other taxi companies.

Yet, there are very good and rational explanations why some companies are popular and others are not.

The quality of its taxi fleet and the courteousness of its drivers, are only two such factors.

After all, with the crime rate at an alarmingly high level in the capital, who wants to risk getting into a dubious cab?

So where is this hospitality that we are so famed for? If tourists and foreign businessmen are greeted with run-down taxis and rogue drivers upon entering the country, I don't think there is any left.

Besides, isn't restricting some companies while giving privileges to others considered an unfair business practice? After all it is business, and everything in business is about competition.

In the end, it is the market that decides. And in the meantime, why not let overseas travelers see that here in Indonesia not all is bad and run-down.

-- Tantri Yuliandini