Jakarta – A transportation watchdog has bizarrely accused ride-hailing apps such as Go-Jek and GrabBike – which provide gainful employment to motorcycle taxi drivers and are registered tax-paying businesses – of operating illegally.
Edi Nursalam, the deputy chairman of the city-funded Jakarta Transportation Council, or DTKJ, said that by providing rides on motorcycle taxis, or ojek, the apps violated a 2003 ministerial regulation on public transportation, which specifically excludes motorcycles as a public transportation vehicle.
He claimed that the only legal aspect of Go-Jek and GrabBike's operations were their motorcycle courier services, which is permitted under a 2014 government regulation on road transport.
Edi did not address the fact that the ojek business has been flourishing for years, long before Go-Jek and GrabBike came on the scene, without any attempt from the authorities to crack down on them under the auspices of the 2003 regulation.
Ellen Tangkudung, the DTKJ chairwoman, attributed the growing popularity of these apps to the city administration's failure to provide safe and adequate public transportation. She said such services should only exist as a "temporary solution," pending meaningful improvements to the existing public transportation networks.
"If we let [the apps] be for too long, then the official public transportation networks will lose their role while these 'in-between solutions' will dominate the market and become out of control," Ellen said as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
The DTKJ's statements come amid an increasingly heated debate about the legitimacy of services provided by ride-hailing apps such as Go-Jek and GrabBike, as well as Uber, which does not pay tax or treat its drivers as employees.
The House of Representatives said last week that it was considering drafting a bill that would regulate the nascent industry.