IDEAS Survey: 68 Percent Of Online Ojek Drivers Work 9-16 Hours A Day

ILLUSTRATION OF PHOTO/UNSPLASH/Fasyah Halim

JAKARTA - The results of the Institute for Democracy and Poverty Studies (IDEAS) survey show that 68.9 percent of online motorcycle taxi drivers in Jabodetabek admit that they have to work between 9 and 16 hours per day.

IDEAS Director Yusuf Wibisono said the non-probability survey was conducted from April to May 2023 on 225 online motorcycle taxi drivers at 10 transportation nodes in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabodetabek).

In addition to long working hours, his party found 79.6 percent of respondents had 6-7 working days, exceeding the normal limit of 5 working days.

"Even 42.2 percent of respondents admitted that they work every day without holidays in a week," Yusuf said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, August 15.

The combination of a very long work time and the main place of work is that the highway exposes online motorcycle taxi partners and carries a high risk of work accidents.

With most of the work time spent on the highway, combined with an exhausted body condition due to long working hours, accidents became unavoidable.

"A total of 31.6 percent of respondents admitted that they had had an accident while being online motorcycle taxi partners, with 2.7 percent of whom suffered serious injuries and motorbikes were heavily damaged," said Yusuf.

Ironically, with the nature and design of the work that exposes him to high risk of accidents, online motorcycle taxi partners are not protected with health insurance and adequate work accident guarantees.

As many as 35.1 percent of respondents admitted that they did not have health insurance (BPJS Kesehatan). "Only 12.9 percent of respondents have BPJS Kesehatan because of assistance or facilitated by application companies," said Yusuf.

IDEAS researcher Muhammad Anwar stated that the figure of 9 to 16 hours of work above was calculated when the online motorcycle taxi driver was outside the house. However, it is possible that the total travel or active time of motorized vehicles is only 4 to 6 hours (viewed from the average kilometer/per vehicle), the rest is hanging out at the gathering/side of the road.

Anwar said that his party had not calculated the emission threshold issued by motorcyclists every time they activated their vehicles.

The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has determined the levels and content of substances in vehicle smoke, including Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Oxygen (O2), and Nitrogen Oksida (NO2) cannot cross the threshold set in DKI Jakarta Governor Regulation Number 31 of 2008.

Each emission test carried out is between 5-7 minutes, the normal vehicle exhaust gas has CO2 levels below 1.5 percent with HC below 200 parts per million (ppm) for gasoline cars over production year 2007, and CO a maximum of 4.5 percent and HC 2,000 ppm for motorcycles produced above 2010.