'Voucher' parking system deemed unsatisfactory

'Voucher' parking system deemed unsatisfactory

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The two-month trial of the voucher system for on-street parking
apparently has not shown satisfactory progress in terms of
revenue for the city.

Siswo Hantoro, a staff member at the Jakarta Parking
Management Agency, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the
sophisticated system had not made a significant contribution to
city revenue.

Siswo showed a report on the city's revenue from parking fees
in five areas where the new system was initiated on June 1.

The US$500,000 project contributed only Rp 1.171 million
(US$136.2) in July, or 1.06 percent of the total Rp 110.56
million collected from the five areas. The remaining 98.94
percent was collected manually by parking attendants.

Before the new system was introduced, the five areas collected
a net revenue of Rp 79.54 million in May. Of the total parking
fees collected parking attendants usually take in advance up to
75 percent of the fees as commission, Siswo said.

Using the new system, only 20 percent of last month's revenue
of Rp 110.56 million will be contributed to the city. Seventy
percent will be used to cover the system expenses and 10 percent
as a management fee for parking operator PT Adiwira Sembada.

Siswo said the system was not working well as motorists had
been uncooperative and were uninformed.

"We definitely need more time to promote the use of a cashless
system," he said.

He suggested the involvement of an independent party to
evaluate the new system and give recommendations.

The city has appointed the University of Indonesia's
technology laboratory as an independent evaluator for the new
system. The recommendations are expected to be announced next
month.

Ismed Abidin, an expert from the laboratory, said "the result
of last two months was still below expectations".

However, he told the Post that no decision had been taken as
his institution was still waiting for the August results, as the
pilot project was scheduled to last for three months.

"There is the possibility of significant progress during this
month," he said.

The parking agency in cooperation with PT Adiwira Sembada
applied the new system on Jl. Bulevar Raya, Kelapa Gading, North
Jakarta; Jl. Jatinegara Timur, East Jakarta; Jl. Gajah Mada, West
Jakarta; Jl. Raden Patah, South Jakarta; and Jl. H. Agus Salim,
Central Jakarta.

The system equips parking attendants with modified handheld
PDAs introducing a cashless parking transaction.

However, many motorists consider paying cash more convenient
since they only have to pay Rp 1,000 at a time for parking.

Under the new system motorists could either pay cash to pay in
advance for parking tickets or use a prepaid card to pay their
parking fees.

Kunto Wibisono, spokesman for operator PT Adiwira, said that
since Aug. 1, motorists are able to pay cash, due to many
complaints over the inconvenience of using prepaid cards, but the
operator has started to impose an hourly rate.

The parking attendants use a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
in charging the fees.

In practice, as observed by the Post, it was more like the old
system but instead of getting a conventional receipt, motorists
get a freshly printed receipt from the modified PDA after paying
cash.