Scrapping the three-in-one traffic policy was a good decision as it did not effectively disentangle traffic tie-ups, but the planned odd-even license plate policy will have no better effect, says a consumer rights activist.

Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) chairman Tulus Abadi said recently that the planned odd-even license plate policy was a setback for the city administration.

Tulus said technically the policy would be hard to implement. “The monitoring will be difficult, unless the city administration uses traffic cameras,” he said.

The city administration is trying to familiarize people with the policy from June 28 to July 26, ahead of the trial period that will run from July 27 July to Aug. 26. The police will kick off official enforcement on Aug. 30.

The odd-even plate policy will be implemented until the city administration is able to install an electronic road pricing (ERP) system next year. The odd-even policy will be effective in the former three-in-one zone, including on Jl. Sudirman, Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Gatot Subroto, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

As traffic cameras are expensive and would take time to procure, the police will enforce the system manually.

Tulus said that the potential number of violations would be high and they would give opportunities to police officers to demand illegal payments.

Tulus said the illegal business of making fake license plates would mushroom in the capital city.

“The ultimate reason is the implementation of the odd-even policy will reduce economic growth as it would hamper the mobility of residents” he said.

Tulus also urged the city administration to focus on planning for the ERP system, which already had a legal basis.

The city administration has been planning to implement ERP in Jakarta since 2013. However, the implementation has faced many hurdles, including a troubled bidding process and an incomplete electronic registration identification (ERI) system, which requires a database in order to charge vehicle owners for using the streets.

The failure of the city administration to resolve the traffic problem has hit many parties, including the private sector.

Bank Indonesia’s (BI) Jakarta branch has revealed that private companies in Jakarta are forced to cut their profit margins to cover transportation costs.

BI’s Jakarta branch president director Donny P. Joewono said recently the survey conducted by the bank last year showed the speed of traffic had decreased by 30 percent since 2014.

“It increases transportation costs of the companies, which means they need to decrease their profit margins,” he said.

He said that besides increasing transportation costs, the worsening traffic also increased the costs of human resource, increased stocking fees, decreased productivity and diminished the ability to expand markets.

The survey shows the average speed in Jakarta during regular hours is 25 kilometers per hour. Meanwhile, the average speed during congestion or peak hours is only 14.1 kph.

Donny said that because of the traffic companies have to undertake several measures. “They comprise prioritizing shipping costs, stocking fuel, or outsourcing their transportation sector to other entities,” he said.

He added some companies even took extreme measures, like relocating their factories or offices outside of Jakarta or even Greater Jakarta. “Some companies now operate in Boyolali, Salatiga, or Solo (Surakarta) — all in Central Java,” he said.

Separately, the head of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Suprayitno, said, “The transportation cost of goods and services in Jakarta reaches up to 30 percent of the total production cost, which is very high.”

Suprayitno said many companies eventually outsourced the sectors to other companies, but sometimes that did not significantly reduce the costs.

“For small items, we usually use online motorcycle taxis. However, they are also expensive,” he said.

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