Soaring prices hit transportation sector
JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of public transportation vehicles have stopped operating due to soaring prices of automobile spare parts resulting from the economic crisis.
Antara reported from Medan in North Sumatra on Saturday that 40 percent of 12,000 buses and minibuses had stopped operating because owners could not afford to buy replacement parts. A similar situation has been reported in Bandung, West Java, while drivers went on strike in Semarang, Central Java.
In Yogyakarta and surrounding areas, some public transportation drivers have been on strike since last Wednesday, disrupting many people's routines.
"The increase of auto parts' prices by up to 400 percent has caused many public transportation owners to ground their vehicles," said Eddy Rangkuti, spokesman of the Organization of Land Transportation Owners in North Sumatra.
Rangkuti was quoted by Antara as saying in Medan that the price of a Mercedes bus tire, for instance, had increased from Rp 580,000 (approximately US$58 at current rate) to Rp 1.2 million.
Rangkuti feared that if spare parts' prices continued to soar in the next three months, almost all public transportation vehicles would stop operations.
"What I regret is that the situation has not only brought transportation companies to the brink of bankruptcy, but will also bring difficulties to many people and students who need transportation," Rangkuti said.
Rangkuti called on the government to help control the skyrocketing prices of auto parts.
But, he said, the most important thing was to abolish various official and unofficial levies on public transportation.
Rangkuti said the levies -- ranging from Rp 2,000 to Rp 4,000 daily per vehicle and which were collected either by government officials or hoodlums -- were a burden to both drivers and transportation owners.
In Semarang, Central Java, thousands of commuters were stranded in the Terboyo main bus terminal as some 200 bus drivers went on strike Friday over soaring prices of auto parts.
Ten military trucks and 10 buses were deployed by local authorities to transport passengers. (byg)