A Bajaj Qute awaits passengers on Friday (6/10) across the road from Manggarai Station in South Jakarta. The Qute is to replace the bemo public minivan.
A plate inscribed with "Bemo" is mounted on the roof of a Bajaj Qute belonging to Rusdi, 63. The new four-wheeled vehicle is to replace the outdated three-wheeled bemo. "It’s so passengers don’t get confused," he said, explaining the reason for the rooftop plate.
Rusli\'s new quadricycle was parked along with two other Qute in a neat row across from Manggarai Railway Station, South Jakarta, where they waited for passengers. In the upper part of the car’s window was a sticker that read ”Manggarai-RSCM”, the route once served by bemo.
"As this has replaced the bemo, we put on this sticker so passengers aren’t confused, because the new vehicle looks like a bajaj," Rusli, who used to drive a bemo driver, said on Friday (6/10).
Rusli has been driving the Qute for the past two months. In August, his bemo was confiscated by officers of the Jakarta Transportation Office because it was old. It forced Ruslia, who had been a bemo driver for 30 years, to change his vehicle. "I have to start from scratch again," he said.
Even though the vehicle is blue like a bajaj, the Qute serves the bemo routes. The drivers will start a trip once they have a full load of passengers.
The Qute has a capacity for four passengers. Sometimes, the drivers are forced to transport five passengers in one trip. In comparison, a bemo could transport seven passengers per trip. Also different from the bemo, which seats passengers next to each other, the Qute’s passengers all sit facing forward.
Besides Manggarai, the Qute also operates in Central Jakarta’s Bendungan Hilir and Penjompongan areas. Two or three Qute pass by every 2-3 kilometers transporting their passengers, while six others await passengers near Bendungan Hilir market.
Asep, 48, a Qute driver, also operates a bemo route. "I’ll take any booking, if there are any. But I mostly serve [this area], as it’s more consistent," he said. Despite his hard work serving passengers, he does not make much money.
Ratoni, 48, a Qute driver in Pejompongan, admitted he made about Rp 250,000 per day. "Rp 125,000 of it has to be given to the owner of the vehicle and another Rp 20,000 for gasoline,” he said.
Sometimes, Ratoni is able to take home Rp 105,000 to support his wife and three children in Tegal, Central Java. But such a take is infrequent. Sometimes, his earnings are just enough to cover his meals for the day.
Ratoni, also a former bemo driver, said the Qute was convenient. "Because it’s still new, it doesn’t break down. That’s different from the bemo," he said. His bemo broke down at least twice a week.
Continuing change
Jakarta’s public transportation has been evolving over many years. Now, the Qute is replacing the bemo, which was banned from operating in June due to their old age.
Adolf Heuken SJ writes in Atlas Sejarah Jakarta (Atlas of Jakarta’s History, Cipta Loka Caraka, 2014) that the bemo was first imported from Japan ahead of the 4th Asian Games in 1962. The bemo was procured under the orders of Indonesia\'s first president, Soekarno.
In the 1970s, then-Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin replaced the becak (three-wheeled pedicab) with the bemo and other motorized vehicles. This was because the becak was deemed inhumane. The Jakarta Administration set the bemo rates back then.
The bemo was later banned in 1996, but the ban was only enforced in the middle of this year by confiscating the aged vehicle. Its replacement, the Qute, is environmentally friendly and is deemed to be safer, as it has four wheels. Under Transportation Minister Regulation No. 26/2017, the Qute is categorized as public transportation in certain areas.
"The regulation has no provision preventing a Qute that is already carrying passengers from taking other passengers on the road. But actually, the vehicle is intended for hire by only one passenger [per trip]," the Jakarta Transportation Office’s head of road transportation, Massdes Arouffy, said on Wednesday (4/10), adding that 70 Qute were operating to date.
Petrus Tukimin, head of area transportation at the Land Transportation Owners Organization (Organda), has a different view. "Most Qute passengers are former bemo passengers,” he said, explaining that the passengers therefore rode the Qute as though they were traveling by bemo.
Azimah, 52, a Qute passenger, also thought that the Qute had simply replaced the bemo. "I just thought it was like a bemo, only it’s smaller," Azimah said on his way home to Pejompongan from Bendungan Hilir market.
Too expensive
Even though the bemo is banned, some former bemo owners are reluctant to switch to the Qute. Their main reason is that the Qute, at Rp 65 million, is too expensive.
If buying in installments, a Rp 10 million down payment is required and their bemo handed over for dismantling for spare parts and recycled steel. If they do not hand over their bemo, the downpayment is raised to Rp 17 million. They must then spend the next four years paying monthly installments of Rp 2.3 million.
Bemo were still seen operating earlier this month in the Bendungan Hilir and Pejompongan areas. ”I’m not yet convinced by the Qute, so I don\'t dare buy it,”said Iis, 45, a bemo owner.
Moreover, she considers the bemo a part of her life. "I am not willing to exchange it with a Bajaj [Qute]," she said.
Iis owns four bemo vehicles, one of which was sent to her his husband’s hometown of Sragen, Central Java, for an exhibit. The other three are still operating. If Jakarta Transportation officers confiscate her vehicles, she is determined to get them back.
Eigh years ago, Iis had 10 bemo vehicles, which she sold one by one to develop other businesses.
