Indonesia's Transportation Challenges: Severe Congestion To High Logistics Fees

The Directorate General of Transportation and Multimodal Integration (Intram) of the Ministry of Transportation highlighted the challenges faced in the Indonesian transportation sector, ranging from severe congestion, high logistics costs, to road-based transportation domination.

Director General of Intram, Risal Wasal said, the solution to these various challenges is to build an integrated transportation system to encourage logistics efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and national economic growth.

Indonesia faces various challenges in the transportation sector, ranging from severe congestion, high logistics costs, to road-based transportation domination. The solution is to build a transportation system that is truly integrated between modes and between regions," said Risal in an official statement, Wednesday, July 30.

Furthermore, Risal said, transportation is not just a matter of infrastructure, but concerns systems and services that are interconnected.

We need to change the perspective. Transportation is not only building roads or rails, but how all modes support each other, tickets can be accessed in one system, and users move modes without obstacles. This is the face of modern transportation that we are building," he said.

Risal also highlighted the high use of private vehicles which reached 140 million motorcycles and 20 million cars. This condition causes congestion and high carbon emissions, especially in urban areas.

"In the Jabodetabek area alone, carbon emissions from transportation reach 270 kilograms per day, or 79 percent of total regional emissions," he said.

On the other hand, Indonesia's logistics costs were recorded at 14.29 percent of GDP, much higher than other ASEAN countries. This was exacerbated by the low Logistics Performance Index Indonesia score, namely 3.0, trailing from Singapore (4.3), Malaysia (3.6), and Vietnam (3.3).

Therefore, Risal emphasized that infrastructure integration and intermodal transportation services should be a priority.

"Transportation that is connected and efficient not only facilitates community mobility, but also has a direct impact on productivity, equitable development, and national logistics competitiveness," he said.

Risal revealed several successful integrations that have been running, including the Dukuh Atas Transit Oriented Development (TOD) area and the Halim KCJB Station, which connects high-speed trains, LRT, TransJakarta, online taxis, and pedestrian paths.

"In Dukuh Atas, this integration has even increased the property value by 50 percent and revived the local business area," he explained.

Risal said that the Directorate General of Intram has also compiled an intermodal and multimodal integration roadmap for 2025-2029, which includes the development of transportation nodes such as ports, stations, terminals, airports, and national strategic areas throughout Indonesia from Sumatra to Papua.

As a step forward, the Directorate General of Intram encourages the implementation of the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) of digital mobility systems that integrate various modes of transportation on one service platform.

"The MaaS concept allows people to move modes easily and efficiently, so they no longer depend on private vehicles," said Risal.