The battle between Indonesia’s conventional taxis and ride-hailing services (known locally as “online taxi”) such as Go-Jek, Grab and Uber is still ongoing, with the government set to implement a new set of contentious regulations on the nascent industry on November 1 after the Supreme Court struck down their previous restrictive rules. One major battleground in that battle is airports, including Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta.
Recently, state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II announced that they would be opening up dedicated booths to officially facilitate passengers choosing to use ride-hailing services starting today.
https://www.facebook.com/airport138/posts/2027457167491576
While that might sound good, customers have already been unofficially able to order pickups from Ubers and others for a while. In fact, the most important part of Angkasa Pura II’s announcement is the section where it mentions that the booths are there in order to curb “illegal online taxis”.
The government’s new national ride-hailing regulations are set to take effect on November 1 (although some stipulations, such as mandatory maximum and minimum tariff rates will be implemented gradually over 6 months). But Angkasa Pura II is already enforcing a requirement that online taxis that operate at Soekarno-Hatta be officially registered with the National Police Cooperative (Inkoppol), which requires them to use special uniforms, pass roadworthiness tests and display special stickers from Soekarno-Hatta.
Right now, the only ride-hailing company that is officially registered with Inkoppol is Grab, and thus the only ride-hailing booths at Soekarno-Hatta right now are for GrabCar. They are located in Terminal 1 (domestic) A, B and C as well as Terminal 2 (international) D and F (there are currently no booths in Terminal 3). Grab employees manning the booths will facilitate both car dispatch and help customers use the Grab app.
The announcement doesn’t make clear what, if any, penalties will be faced by non-registered ride-hailing companies or their partner drivers should they continue to pick up customers at the airport. But if you want to hail a ride from Soekarno-Hatta, it seems like using Grab is the least likely to cause you hassle for now.
Jakartans should be happy they can still order rides pickups the airport at all, unlike in Bali where the airport operator has strictly forbidden them.
