Buses Often Accident, Trade Union Criticizes Transjakarta Prioritizing Cuan

JAKARTA - The Jakarta Transportation Workers Union (SPTJ) asked PT Transjakarta BUMD to evaluate their management and operational systems. This is related to the Transjakarta bus accidents that have often occurred recently.

SPTJ chairman Jan Oratmangun assessed that the accident was caused by the deteriorating quality of Transjakarta services. He considered this to be the result of Transjakarta's current policy of prioritizing profit oriented.

“The unions rate the quality of service as declining. This is the impact of the implementation of various policies that prioritize profit-oriented rather than empowering human resources," Jan said in his statement, Tuesday, December 7.

Jan explained that the policy that is more directed at finding money is followed by a budget efficiency policy in the field. In fact, Jan assesses budget efficiency is the wrong policy.

Jan gave an example, currently there are no more officers on the bus who should be able to remind Transjakarta bus drivers to ensure the safety and comfort of customers on the bus.

Then, another example of misguided policies is that Transjakarta's control function as a regulator of bus operators does not work well.

"The operational control function was previously carried out by control officers in each corridor or route with a scheme of 3 controlling officers, but now it is reduced to only one person in each corridor," said Jan.

"So the supervision of the driver's driving behavior in the corridor to apply the minimum service standards (SPM) is weak," he continued.

Therefore, Jan urged Transjakarta to improve service quality according to SPM standards by placing more PLB officers on the bus.

"It is necessary to strengthen the control and supervision function of Transjakarta as a regulator of operators. How do people want to ride Transjakarta if the service quality is poor, unsafe, and uncomfortable? You can do efficiency and use the system, but don't be misguided and ignore safety," he added.