The survival of private car hailing service Uber is hanging by a thread in Jakarta and Bandung – and now they say they need the public’s support to have any chance of resuming their service in Indonesia.
Because of transport regulation concerns, both the Jakarta and Bandung governments have banned Uber, with authorities in the capital impounding 30 of the service’s partner cars recently.
Opponents of Uber point out that its partner cars don’t comply with the rules of public transportation. However, despite banning it in his city, even Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil conceded that Uber is “useful” from an economic perspective and only regulations are holding it back.
Uber certainly believes that the public finds their service useful as well. And now, they have started a petition to let people put pressure on the government to reconsider the service’s legal status in Indonesia and to stop authorities from cracking down on their drivers.
The petition, which was addressed to Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, argues that if Uber were to be banned entirely, more than 6,000 drivers would be without a job. Furthermore, the ban would limit public transport options in the two cities.
As of this morning, more than 20,000 people have already signed the petition. If you want to support Uber, you can sign the petition at https://action.uber.org/jakarta20150911/
