Taxi giant Blue Bird gets 300 more cabbies
Taxi giant Blue Bird gets 300 more cabbies
JAKARTA (JP): Blue Bird, the giant city taxi company, will employ an additional 300 cabbies next year as a result of its management takeover deal with Morante Jaya, the Blue Bird director has said.
"As we have a big demand for more cabbies, we welcome cooperation with other cab companies such as Morante Jaya," Purnomo Prawiro told reporters at his office Thursday.
According to him, the company have to reject orders from customers, amounting to 57,000 daily, since it operates only 1,600 taxies.
According to the agreement, Blue Bird will be given a 20 percent share in the cooperation, in return for taking over the management of Morante's operations, with 80 percent remaining with the original owners.
"We'll apply all of Blue Bird's operational policies, including the regulations, training and quality of service to the Morante Jaya drivers," Purnomo said.
The company's point of view is that drivers are "representatives on whom the company's good image depends." Blue Bird stresses the importance of training and various social welfare facilities, such as health care and credit for housing for drivers, he said.
The company also applies computerized control of reservations and records of passengers' complaints, which amounts to approximately 20 persons each month, he said.
"We always trace back the complaints and try to evaluate them," Purnomo said. He added that most of the complaints that Blue Bird receives are related to taxies arriving late.
The 300 taxis of Morante Jaya will start operating under the scheme next year. In the first stage starting next month 160 taxis will be operated while 40 others will follow in February and the rest later.
With this most recent addition, Blue Bird will operate a total of 2,600 cabbies, 1,000 of which are in Bali.
AN official of the Jakarta chapter of the Organization of Land Transport Owners' Company said here yesterday that even though there have been no complaints about taxi shortage in the capital city, as he claims, the administration has allowed more cabs to operate here next year.
Data from the organization says that Jakarta will have 17,300 taxies next year operated by 24 companies. (03)