New app-based ojek service, UberJek, to employ drivers based on “armpit smell test”

Screenshot from www.uberjek.com

Motorcycle taxi drivers spend most of their days riding through the heat and pollution of Jakarta’s streets, so it’s not unfair to say that some of them have, well, terrible body odor.

This is one of the main areas of concern for a new app-based ojek start-up company in Jakarta called UberJek.

“To select our drivers, applicants will be tested on traffic knowledge, their motorcycles’ condition, and a body odor test,” said UberJek founder Aris Wahyudi, as quoted by Okezone yesterday.

The company aptly named their body odor test ‘Test Bau Ketek’ (armpit smell test), as shown in the screenshot from their website above. It says those with smelly armpits can’t be UberJek drivers. Seriously.

Say what you will about their unimaginative name (which was almost certainly influenced by global car-hailing app Uber), at least UberJek knows how to differentiate themselves from the growing pack of Go-Jek and GrabBike competitors, such as BluJek and LadyJek.

UberJek plans to launch, odor-free, in 2016.