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Taxi operators hit hard by sudden spate of stalled cars
Taxi operators in the city are expressing frustration following increasing incidents of taxis stalling in the past three weeks, allegedly due to poor quality gasoline and badly manufactured fuel pumps
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axi operators in the city are expressing frustration following increasing incidents of taxis stalling in the past three weeks, allegedly due to poor quality gasoline and badly manufactured fuel pumps.
“At least 30 taxis stall during operation every day and must return to our pool for a check up,” Priyatmedi, the operational director of Jakarta-based Taxiku taxi service, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
“Our in-house mechanics found that the taxis stalled mainly due to problems with the fuel pumps.”
Although the company’s new fleet of Chevrolets are still covered by guarantees for any spare parts purchased from the dealer, Priyatmedi complained that “once a taxi stalls, it affects the collection of our operating income”.
Blue Bird Group public relations head Teguh Wijayanto said his company had found fuel pump damage in 1,200 of their cars.
“Some of our drivers could not start their cars due to the problem while others had their cars suddenly grind to a halt.”
He said the company’s mechanics pinned the problem on a similar cause. “They found a clot in the cars’ fuel pumps,” he said.
Earlier this week, several taxi operators reported that a large number of their cars suffered from technical problems due to flawed to fuel pumps.
Normally, the pumps have to be replaced after 100,000 kilometers, or around four years of use.
“But now, we find that some of our newer cars that have less than 30,000 kilometers on the clock also have faulty fuel pumps,” Teguh said.
Blue Bird currently operates a fleet of more than 11,000 Toyota Limo cars, produced between 2007 and 2009, throughout Greater Jakarta, while Taxiku operating less than 1,000 cars in the same area.
The sudden spate of fuel pump issues has triggered public speculation.
One widespread view is that there was an intentional attempt to degrade the quality of premium gasoline in Jakarta, while others blame production errors during the fuel pump manufacturing process.
State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has strongly denied any rumors of tampered fuel supplies.
Pertamina is the largest distributor of subsidized premium gasoline in the country.
“Our laboratory tests on premium gasoline samples collected from several Pertamina gas stations in Jakarta on July 20 found no substandard fuel.” Pertamina corporate secretary Toharso said Thursday.
When asked for comment, PT Toyota Astra Motor president director Johnny Darmawan said
Friday that he did not want to speculate about the fuel pump problem, saying that all car distributors,
Pertamina and public representatives needed to meet to discuss the matter.
“Reports show that it is not only our [Toyota] cars that have this problem,” Johnny said.
