TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Airfare hike pushes couriers to land, water
Express couriers are shifting to land and water transportation following an accumulative increase in air cargo fares over the last eight months
Change Size
Express couriers are shifting to land and water transportation following an accumulative increase in air cargo fares over the last eight months.
Express Couriers Association of Indonesia (Asperindo) deputy chairman Budi Paryanto said the majority of the association’s members decided to stop using air transportation, as airlines had made several adjustments to cargo rates since June 2018.
“We have shifted around 60 percent of our services to land and a combination of land and water transportation,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.
“Unlike Java, where we have many land transportation options, we, for example, have shifted to a combination of land and water transportation shipments to Bandar Lampung in Lampung, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Pontianak in West Kalimantan.”
Budi said couriers were relying on freight trucks for land transportation in Java, especially after the recent inauguration of the 938-kilometer toll road that connected Indonesia’s two biggest cities, Jakarta and Surabaya, and substantially reduced delivery time.
Although couriers had focused more on their regular services following the fare hikes, they would still use cargo and passenger flights for their express services, Budi said. Couriers had increased their express service fares by an average of 20 percent since January, he added.
Budi claimed that because price adjustments had affected small and medium enterprises, which previously relied on air cargo services to deliver goods, couriers had experienced a 40 percent decrease in services.
“Air cargo transportation accounts for 40 percent of couriers’ total spending, so the recent spike in air cargo fares has deeply affected us,” he said.
Budi noted that various airlines gradually increased their cargo rates by a range of between 120 and 352 percent from last June to January.
Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, for example, has announced six different rate increases since June 2018, with an accumulative increase of 352 percent. Two of the changes were announced in January alone.
Budi said the airlines made their announcements suddenly, leaving couriers unprepared as they had to abide by contract agreements with clients that required a one-month notice for changes in service charges.
He said the association was currently reviewing the possibility of using charter flights, with commercial airlines canceling flights for failing to bring in passengers following skyrocketing passenger fares in recent months.
“We have also asked the government to intervene, although we know cargo fares are not regulated by the government,” he said, adding that state-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga’s plan to increase rates in Java, Bali and Sulawesi might pose yet another threat to couriers’ businesses.
Jasa Marga recently announced its plan to increase the tolls for 15 sections of highway on three islands this year.
State-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia courier and logistics director Barkah Hadimoeljono said the price hike in air cargo fares had also affected its profit margin.
He acknowledged that even though his company made some changes to its cargo services, there was more flexibility in choosing transportation modes based on required delivery time.
Indonesian Ombudsman commissioner Alvin Lie said the air cargo rate hikes were unreasonable and stressed that his side was currently reviewing Asperindo’s complaint by communicating closely with stakeholders and reviewing regulations.
He speculated that the changes could be due to the fact that the air cargo industry grew last year, while the number of passengers who traveled by air declined.
The Transportation Ministry’s Air Transportation Directorate General recorded an 11.2 percent increase in cargo to 1.12 million tons in 2018 from 1.11 million tons in 2017.
The number of passengers, however, nosedived by 10 percent to 126 million in the first 11 months of 2018 from the same period in 2017.
“As the number of passengers is declining, airlines tend to decrease the number of their flights from three to one per day, resulting in the decrease of space for cargo,” he said, adding that, as a result, cargo rates had increased.
Alvin suggested that the government intervene in the aviation industry as it had the authority to control and regulate its players. (ars)
