City gets tough on trucks

The city administration is stepping up its drive to free the city’s main thoroughfare from errant truckers with overloaded vehicles.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono said out of 14,000 container trucks travelling to the city’s port in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, each day, 30 percent did not have proper licences. Of the properly documented vehicles, half carried freight above their maximum capacity and were poorly maintained.

Poorly maintained and overloaded trucks can easily lead to accidents and traffic congestion. Trucks without the proper documents mean a loss of revenue for the city, as the city cannot collect taxes from them, Udar said.

“We are losing up to Rp 9 billion [US$1 million] in unpaid taxes,” he said.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency is currently conducting sweeps for errant truckers twice a week at random locations near Tanjung Priok in collaboration with the Organization of Land Transportation Operators (Organda), the port authority, the Jakarta Police, the Jakarta Military Command and the Transportation Ministry’s directorate general for land transportation.

The city administration has faced problems taking action against errant trucks bound for Tanjung Priok as the port is under the authority of the Transportation Ministry.

As of Tuesday, 823 trucks have been given tickets and 164 were banned from operating by the city transportation agency. Owners of the trucks were given two weeks to repair their vehicles.

“We are not going to give more tickets or keep trucks off the road. We just want to teach them a lesson,” Udar said. Poorly maintained and overloaded trucks contribute to the deterioration of the city’s main roads, he added.

Organda chair Sudirman said his organization supported the city’s initiative.

“Trucks without proper documents means their owners didn’t pay taxes. It is unfair for those who abide by the rules,” Sudirman said.

More than 400 companies with a fleet of 9,000 container trucks have to compete with more than 4,000 undocumented trucks, he said.

Up to 6,000 containers are transported through the Tanjung Priok port each day.

The port has become more and more crowded in recent years.

The government expects to build four new terminals costing Rp 22 trillion to handle the additional cargo.

Earlier this year, state seaport operator PT Pelindo II earmarked Rp 300 billion to expand Tanjung Priok’s car terminal in anticipation of an increase in car importing and exporting. The expansion aims to increase the port’s storage capabilities from 2.5 hectares to 12 hectares, and plans are expected to be finalized this year.