Motorcycle taxi drivers working for rivals Go-Jek and Grab (known in Indonesia as ojek online or ojol for short) have been organizing protests for months demanding that the tech unicorns or the government institute rules to ensure their livelihoods, particularly a high floor on the minimal tariff rate for drivers.
The Transportation Ministry just issued a new set of regulations on the online ojek industry but, while it includes a variety of new rules that should help safeguard drivers’ lives and livelihood, a minimum tariff rate is not among them but the government claims they’ll make a decision on that this week.
The regulation, published by the ministry today is titled Ministry of Transportation Regulation Number 12 of 2019 concerning the Safety and Protection of Users of Motorcycles Used in the Interest of the Community”:
Many of the regulations relate to the safety and comfort of ojol customers. For example, they require drivers to be polite, clean and wear neat clothing (including reflective jackets). Others regard safety, such as a prohibition on carrying more than one passenger at a time and another on smoking or doing anything else that could distract from driving.
The regulation also establishes a formula to calculate service costs that include the various costs to drivers such as gasoline, vehicle insurance, cell phone costs etc.
However, the rules does not include a minimum standard tariff rate, which has been at the top of the list of demands given by ojol at protests across the country over the last year. Various ojol communities have demanded that the government set a minimum tariff of IDR3,000 (US$0.20) but Transport Minister Budi Karya said the government was still considering the current provisional minimum of IDR2,400, an amount he said was a good middle ground between driver’s aspirations and the spending power of consumers.
“So what we’re thinking now is IDR2,400. If it was chosen among the operators, it would be around IDR2,400. But we will continue to discuss it,” Budi said today as quoted by Detik, noting that both representatives of the ride-hailing apps and ojol unions were being represented in the talks.
Budi promised that discussion on the minimum tariff would be finalized this week. If it is below IDR3,000, some ojol organizations have already promised large-scale strikes and protests.
