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or thousands of ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers trying to make a living in Jakarta, each day is a struggle, especially as they live in a time of fast-paced technological development.

Adi, 35, an ojek driver who looks for passengers at Kalibata City shopping mall and around the apartments in South Jakarta every day, said the job was becoming tougher with fierce competition not only coming from other ojek drivers or public transportations but also from ride-hailing applications Go-Jek and Grab Bike that have recently enjoyed growing popularity.

'€œThere are around 40 ojek drivers who are '€˜officially'€™ registered in this place. This means there are 40 families to feed every day and apps such as Go-Jek and Grab Bike make it harder for us,'€ Adi told The Jakarta Post recently.

Only a few days ago, Adi and other fellow ojek drivers in Kalibata City agreed to put a large banner in front of the shopping mall'€™s entrance gate, prohibiting drivers with the Go-Jek and Grab Bike mobile applications to pick-up passenger from the compound.

Adi said he and other traditional ojek drivers were not trying to create a conflict with ride-hailing mobile app'€™s drivers, but using the banner to emphasize that it was unethical for them to pick-up passengers from '€œsomeone else'€™s workplace'€.

'€œWhat made it more unfair is that some of the Go-Jek and Grab Bike drivers work just for additional income on top of their daily office work, while we do this to survive,'€ he said.

Having only graduated junior high school, Adi said becoming an ojek driver was the best job he could do and emphasized that he had no intention to join those ride-hailing apps because he would have to share his income with the company.

Another ojek driver, Nandar Sukardi, said he was going to take his wife and his two daughters back to his hometown in Yogyakarta in the next few days because he could no longer afford their daily needs.

Nandar, who planned to farm at his parents'€™ rice field in the hometown, said living costs in Jakarta were too expensive for them, while there was no significant increase in his income.

'€œThere are too many ojek now. Some of my former customers now have become drivers too,'€ he said.

Given Jakarta'€™s infamous congestion, ojek can be found almost on every street corner of the capital although their existence is not regulated in the 2009 law on traffic and land transportation.

As an informal mode of transportation, ojek drivers have fought over passengers with formal public transportation, including public minivans (angkot).

On Jl. Gongseng Raya in Cijantung, East Jakarta, the dispute has ended in favor of the ojek drivers.

In the area, angkots are prohibited to pass through the area between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. even though it was their official route.

Alamsyah, an ojek driver at the Jl. Gongseng Raya, said the agreement was made between ojek and angkot drivers more than 10 years ago after a riot related to the fighting over passengers broke out in the neighborhood. Local ojek drivers who lived in the neighborhood believed that angkots were '€œstealing'€ their passengers.

Alamsyah said the unrest escalated to the point of several angkots being destroyed before both parties finally made an agreement in a nearby police office regarding the limitation of angkot operation hours in the area.

'€œIt'€™s a fair agreement. Now, there are no fights in this neighborhood,'€ he said.