Traffic when you go in, traffic when you go out. Inside harbors, dwell time can last long due to loading and unloading activities. Outside harbors, congestion is also present, albeit in the form of heavy road traffic. These are common stories shared among the truck drivers who regularly find themselves trapped in logistical quagmires nationwide.
Rusdi, 29, breathed a sigh of relief. At around mid-day, he was already at the cargo terminal at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port. The Marunda-based truck driver wiped the sweat off his forehead numerous times as he was “baked” inside his truck. Rusdi’s truck had been stuck in traffic heading to the harbor.
He needed to race against time and arrive at Karawang Industrial Estate on time. “Factories in Karawang will close at 5 p.m. If I am late, I need to stay overnight and load goods tomorrow morning,” said Rusdi on Thursday (1/1/2019).
Jamin, 27, a Bogor-based truck driver, was not as lucky as Rusdi. He had been waiting for two hours at the harbor as there was trouble with the loading machine. “The digital system has been really helpful with transporting the containers. However, delays persist in the long loading and unloading process,” Jamin said.
At 12:30 p.m., Rusdi left Tanjung Priok for Karawang. His truck, bearing a sticker that says “Marunda Community”, moved slowly toward the Kebon Bawang and Tanjung Priok tollgates. After the Kebon Bawang tollgate was opened, traffic congestion reduced.
Entering the Tanjung Priok toll road, traffic was snarled up for around 20 minutes as two trucks broke down. Afterwards, traffic on the the toll road, which is part of the trans-Java highway, became smooth. Soon, Rusdi arrived at the Cikampek toll road. There was congestion at several points, such as at kilometers 5, 14 and 16. There was a 9-kilometer stretch of traffic.
“Toward the Cikunir interchange and all the way to Cikampek, congestion is common. It’s like this every day,” Rusdi said. The congestion is mostly the result of the Jakarta-Cikampek elevated toll road construction.
Unlike Rusdi, container truck driver Jajat, 43, often takes the northern coastal road, popularly known as pantura road, to get to the Karawang Industrial Estate. “I can spend five or six hours if I take the toll road. If I use pantura, I can be [in Karawang] in just three hours,” Jajat said.
Jajat, who has been a container truck driver for 25 years, said that congestion often led to higher fuel costs. In 2016, he often spent Rp 200,000 for fuel per trip. Nowadays, it’s Rp 350,000 for the same trip.
Improvements
Apart from traffic congestion, drivers often complain about illegal levies both in and out of harbors. Asdi, 30, said that bikers often followed trucks as they emerged from the Jatinegara toll road and drove toward the Cipinang central rice market in East Jakarta.
“When I arrive at the rice market, the bikers will ask me for Rp 40,000; ‘For safety’, they’ll say,” Asdi explained.
Inside the Tanjung Priok harbor, Asdi also needs to deal with illegal levies, including for entrance, vehicle surveys and exiting the harbor.
The government has prepared five major policies to boost the nation’s export competitiveness in the short run. Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said that logistics was among the nation’s crucial problems that should be fixed immediately. Physical infrastructure that has been improved in the last four years will be combined with a digitized system. The goal is to reduce export costs, which have burdened businesspeople for so long.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the customs office would initiate logistics reform through its third-generation manifest system. The entire process of proposing and revising manifests is now done electronically to reduce dwelling time and logistics costs.
Rusdi and other truck drivers like him may not understand the government’s efforts and policies. For them, being free from illegal levies and traffic jams are meaningful changes. They are concrete improvements to help them get out of logistical quagmires nationwide. (KRN/E19)