P

olitical factions on the City Council have urged the Jakarta administration to get tough on parking operators by calling for a provision in a draft bylaw that would require the operators to pay for losses or damages incurred by cars under their supervision.

Councillor Ichwan Zayadi of the United Development Party (PPP) said that the city government should require parking operators to insure all vehicles parked on their premises.

“Such a regulation would mean that customers would receive compensation for any losses or damages inflicted on their vehicle while parked,” Zayadi said during a plenary session to deliberate a new bylaw on city parking.

The city has submitted a draft for the new parking bylaw that would amend the 2004 parking ordinance.

Zayadi said the draft proposed by the city government barely set out responsibilities among parking operators.

“We found an article on the rights of customers, but it does not clearly stipulate that customers have the right to received compensation for any losses or damages,” he said.

Zayadi added that the provision on compensation should apply both to privately- and city-owned parking garages.

Nurmansjah Lubis of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said that the city should clearly impose penalties on operators who failed to protect their customers.

“We haven’t seen such a clear regulation and this would put vehicle owners in a weak position as customers,” Lubis said.

Furthermore, he said, the city has yet to provide a clear guideline on how to address complaints from customers.

“How and to whom should the customer direct their complaints against the parking garage operators. We need to be specific on this,” he said.

The PKS also wanted the city government to stipulate security standards that would apply to all parking operators.

In July last year, in a rare win for consumer protectionism, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling by the Jakarta High Court which had ordered parking operator PT Securindo Packatama Indonesia to pay out compensation for a car that went missing in one of its parking spaces.

The Court ruled that the company had to pay Rp 60 million (US$6,960) to Anny R. Gultom and Hontas Tambunan, who had lost their car in a Central Jakarta shopping center parking garage managed by the company.

Consumer rights activists then said that the ruling should set a precedent for customers to challenge the parking garage operators, especially because the ruling upheld provisions of the 1999 Consumer Protection Law.