Subsidised Diesel Scarce, Trucks Queue for Hours at Sidoarjo Petrol Stations

A shortage of subsidised Bio Solar fuel triggered severe congestion on the Surabaya-Mojokerto provincial route, specifically in the Krian to Balongbendo area of Sidoarjo Regency, on Monday evening (22/6). Hundreds of trucks and large vehicles queued for hours at several public fuel filling stations (SPBU), with lines spilling onto the road surface. The situation caused a significant slowdown in traffic flow along this logistics corridor, particularly during the busy late afternoon and evening hours. According to truck drivers, the Bio Solar scarcity has been occurring evenly across Sidoarjo and surrounding areas over the past few days, hampering goods distribution times. “Heading to Solo, I’ve been queuing since half past twelve noon. I managed to WhatsApp a colleague at the Kertosono SPBU, and it turns out it’s the same there, there’s a stock problem,” said Pepi, an inter-provincial truck driver, on Monday (22/6). A similar account was given by Fajar, a driver on the Tuban-Sidoarjo route. He admitted to wasting more than four hours on the road just queuing for fuel in order to return to the depot. In a bid to meet delivery targets, some drivers were even forced to dig deeper into their pockets to purchase non-subsidised diesel (Dexlite/Pertamina Dex) so they could continue their journey. As of the time this report was filed, there had been no official statement from Pertamina or local SPBU management regarding the cause of the renewed shortage of Bio Solar supply in the Sidoarjo area. The management of SPBUs in the affected areas also declined to comment when approached by journalists.