Meager Wages Drained by High Transportation Costs

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Residents walk through city transportation waiting for passengers at Karangayu Market, Semarang City, Central Java, Saturday (20/6/2020).

For some residents in Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya, a lack of access to public transportation to work erodes monthly income.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Access to public transportation in four cities in Java outside Jakarta, namely Surabaya, Bandung, Semarang and Yogyakarta, has proven crucial to citizens’ welfare. The cost of living for the residents in areas outside public transportation networks appears to be higher.

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Data from the four cities shows that a resident spends an average of Rp 241,875 per month to commute to work. The figure results from a calculation based on a 10 kilometer return trip from a home in the suburbs to the city center five days a week.

If the residents do not live near a public transportation hub, their commuting costs swell to Rp 339,333, more than 40 percent higher than the costs of those who are near such transit centers. The former group incurs a higher commuting cost because its members have to change routes and modes of transportation more often.

For those who use a car, the amount is 15 times higher at Rp 3.8 million per month.

Transportation costs are higher if commuters choose to buy and use motorbikes to get to work. The average monthly cost is Rp 1.1 million or 3.5 times higher than taking public transportation. For those who use a car, the amount is 15 times higher at Rp 3.8 million per month.

The calculation simulation used the Here Maps API navigation app to determine the distance of 10 km from the city center where the simulated residents lived. The calculation of fares and the duration of the public transportation trip used Google Maps.

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The cost calculation for commuting on private vehicles takes into account fuel expenses, vehicle credit payments (with a tenor of 4 years for a car and 3 years for a motorbike), parking fares, taxes and vehicle upkeep costs. The transportation cost calculation in the four cities showed the motorbike users spent more money to get to work. All the figures were above the World Bank's ideal transport expenditure threshold of 10 percent of monthly income. This report uses the respective regional minimum wages (UMRs) of the four cities as the hypothetical residents' monthly incomes.

Yogyakarta’s burden

Yogyakarta residents who earn the equivalent of the UMR (Rp 1.8 million), live in areas outside the public transportation network and use motorbikes as a mode of transportation spend 60 percent of their monthly wages on commuting to work. The ratio of Yogyakarta residents' monthly transport expenses to their income was the largest of the cities studied.

NINO CITRA ANUGRAHANTO

The atmosphere of the Giwangan bus terminal, Yogyakarta, Saturday (9/5/2020). There are only buses within the city and within the province that are active that day.

One Yogyakarta resident, Eko, 22, said he spent Rp 1.02 million or 68 percent of his Rp 1.5 million wage on his monthly motorcycle payment, fuel, parking and the bike’s maintenance. He lived on what remained from the income for daily needs, mobile phone credit and cigarettes. Fortunately, he still lived with his mother. He said he wished he could set aside money for the future. "I’m living as well as I can," he said. Bike users in Bandung spent around Rp 1.4 million or 37 percent of the UMR (Rp 3.7 million) for monthly transportation costs. Bike users in Semarang spent Rp 926,000, or 40.2 percent of the UMR (Rp 2.3 million), while those in Surabaya incurred monthly transportation costs of around Rp 1 million, or 23.1 percent of the UMR (Rp 4.3 million).

According to the Household Financial Planning Guidelines issued by the Financial Services Authority, the ideal budget for household needs is around 40 percent, including expenditure for transportation.

Given the transportation spending exceeding the World Bank's ideal standards, the residents living on UMR income in these four cities find to it difficult to meet their daily needs. According to the Household Financial Planning Guidelines issued by the Financial Services Authority, the ideal budget for household needs is around 40 percent, including expenditure for transportation.

When expenditure on transportation exceeds half the income received, as in the case of Eko and many other minimum wage earners, they endure difficulties reserving money for daily needs, including electricity and water bills, education and health payments, let alone savings or investment.

Reduced costs

On the other hand, relying on public transportation to commute to work, even if a resident lives in an area far from public transportation nodes, can suppress monthly transportation costs. In this case, Bandung commuters appear to spend Rp 410,000 or only 14.9 percent of the minimum wage.

Hera Widyastuti, a transportation expert from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya, said Indonesians tended to choose motorbikes because, if only fuel was considered in expenditure calculations, they seemed to be cheaper than public transportation. “Sometimes we don’t realize that the motorbike needs maintenance, parking and so on. This fails to be counted and tends to be forgotten. In fact, using mass public transportation, you don't need to think about these costs," she said on Monday (14/3/2022).

However, the advantage of public transportation in terms of expenses must be paid for with a longer travel times. Compared to motorbikes, travel time on public transportation is 133.6 percent longer. If traveling to a destination on a motorbike takes one hour, public transportation will take, on average, two hours and 20 minutes.

Another factor is that, based on an analysis of the four cities, few residents are served properly by public transportation. Only 9.2 million people in the cities are covered by public transportation services. The figure is equivalent to 68.4 percent of the total 13.5 million residents in the cities and their greater urban areas.

In the areas that have public transportation access, the majority of the residents (80.8 percent) are served by city transportation or conventional public buses. Meanwhile, mass transportation, such as rapid transit buses and commuter trains, only accommodates 66.7 percent of the residents.

Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta (BAH)

Fleet of Friends of the Trans Semanggi Suroboyo Bus during the inauguration at Surabaya City Hall, Surabaya City, East Java, Wednesday (29/12/2021).

The Transportation Ministry’s director for land transportation, Budi Setiyadi, acknowledged the government’s failure to provide safe, comfortable, cheap, modern and accessible public transportation. He said the established mobility culture made commuters comfortable on private vehicles, especially motorcycles.

The government has reportedly initiated a “buy the service” policy for public transportation programs in 11 cities in Indonesia. The scheme allows the central government to purchase public transportation services from operators in each city with agreed-upon service standards.

(SPW/XNA/PUT)

(This article was translated by Musthofid)