Taxi drivers suffer economic fallout from Bali blasts

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The bombing in Bali has reverberated all the way back to Jakarta, where taxi drivers are feeling the effects of the attack.

The blast, which killed almost 200 people, many of them foreign tourists, shook the image that parts of Indonesia at least were safe for foreigners.

Thousands of foreign tourists fled the island shortly after the attack and many countries promptly issued travel warnings for Indonesia.

The travel warnings and the exodus of foreigners has had a particularly hard impact on drivers of Silver Bird taxis, many of whose passengers are foreigners.

"It has been very drastic. I can't say how large the decrease has been but we consider it very lucky if we can still bring some money home," Wasito, who has been driving taxis for about 10 years, said on Tuesday.

"Most of our customers are foreigners and now they have either left the country or are keeping low after the blast."

Another Silver Bird driver, Sumardi, said most Westerners lumped Islam together with terrorism, causing many foreigners to cancel trips to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

"Now we can only get less than Rp 200,000 (US$21) a day, far below our daily target of Rp 390,000.

"We can only bring home some money if we can get more than Rp 300,000, which is quite difficult," said Sumardi.

The Blue Bird taxi group, which manages Silver Bird, uses a commission system where drivers receive a percentage of their daily earnings. The larger the earnings, the larger the commission.

Another taxi driver said the number of local passengers had also fallen since the Bali attack.

"I have not had any foreign passengers since the blast. Even the local ones are getting hard to find," said Herman from Liberty Taxi.

"I guess most Jakarta residents are keeping low after the blast and reducing unnecessary visits to public places such as malls."

There have been at least 20 bomb hoaxes in Jakarta since the Bali bombing.

But Herman said he was still able to meet the revenue target set by the company and could "bring home some money for my family every day".

He, however, admitted that there was a decrease in income.

"Usually, I could bring in some Rp 3 million for the company before the blast. Now, I can only get some Rp 2 million."

Meanwhile, Solichin of Express Taxi said he was not suffering much from the blast, claiming to be able to bring home at least Rp 50,000 daily.

"There were two or three slow days after the blast but now I am busy with passengers.

"Therefore, I do not have any difficulty in meeting the target of Rp 95,000 set by the company," said Solichin, who drives an old Ford Laser taxi.

Solichin, however, said that those who drive newer Toyota Soluna taxis may find it difficult to meet their daily revenue target of almost Rp 200,000.