Bali’s tourist taxi drivers are taking part in a series of peaceful protests, calling on the government to step in and help protect their livelihoods.
The Bali Tourism Driver Struggle Forum (FPDP) marched to the Regional People’s Representative Council of Bali (Bali DPRD), the office of the provincial government, to make six very specific demands.
In this peaceful protest and discussion, hundreds of taxi drivers who are part of the Bali Tourism Driver Struggle Forum met with the Chairman of the Bali DPRD, Dewa Made Mahayadnya, and several other councilors, to discuss their grievances on Monday, 6th January.
The core of the problem? Local taxi drivers are frustrated that online taxi providers are out-competing them in the market.
The Bali Tourism Driver Struggle Forum want to see the Bali Provincial Government put a quota on the number of online taxi service providers allowed to be registered in the province, this goes for motorcycle and car taxis.
They are calling for the government to operate stricter regulations when it comes to vehicle rentals for tourists, for both motorcycles and cars.
The third demand is to create a standardized set of rates for taxis across the board. The fourth was to restrict taxi companies, enabling them to hire drivers only with Balinese ID cards.
The fifth would be to require all tourist transportation vehicles to have local Bali Province license plates. The sixth and final demand was to create a set of standardized criteria for tourist drivers coming to Bali from outside the province.
The Bali Tourism Driver Struggle Forum feels that the increasing presence of online taxi providers and drivers, as well as an increasing number of taxi drivers from outside of the province moving to Bali to set up businesses, is creating a disparity in the market.
Tourist trends show that visitors are increasingly likely to book an online taxi while on vacation on the island due to the cost, accessibility, ease of organizing, and safety features offered by the applications.
There is an ongoing tension because local taxi drivers feel that because they pay a village tax and support their communities, and there is a long-standing system within each community regarding taxi operations.
Online taxi providers are seen as outsiders who do not fund the upkeep of village roads yet who have access to earn a living from them. Despite interventions from the Ministry of Transportation, confirming that online taxi providers are operating within the law, tensions have prevailed.
For nearly a decade, there have been growing tensions between local taxi syndicates and online taxi drivers. At the same time, many online taxi drivers are from Bali, just as many are from around Indonesia and have moved to Bali in order to earn a living in the busiest tourism destination in the country.
The Coordinator for the Bali Tourism Driver Struggle Forum, Made Darmayasa, explained, “We Balinese are required to carry out our obligations, but our rights are being robbed.”
“We carry out religious rituals every day because of our beliefs, but our rights are being robbed, taken by capitalists, liberals with very large capital in Bali.”
The conclusion of the meeting was that existing legislation, already in place to protect local taxi drivers, needs to be brought into effect more strictly, including a series of industry standards. Industry standards that were already outlined by the provincial government back in October 2023.
There will also be an increased ‘supervision’ of online taxi vendors to ensure that fake plates are not being used and that the driver-vehicle registrations are up to date.
Local taxi drivers have been warned not to take the law into their own hands and report any violations to the authorities.
For tourists in Bali, these demands and updates might not create immediately visible changes, but over time, we may see a shift towards a standardized set of taxi fares that would make it no different to hop in a local taxi vs. calling an online taxi.
As the peaceful protest is now over and the Bali Tourism Driver Struggle Forum has had their demands aired, normal order is set to resume.
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Wim
Tuesday 7th of January 2025
@wp
That is their own fault "With the exception of BLUE BIRD" and "GRAP"
The outrageous prices they charge are rudely high and tourist unfriendly, and they forget that the tourists bring money to Bali.
for example. With the "BLUE BIRD" from Kuta to the airport 40000 RP and with the airport taxi 200000 RP. That is their own fault "With the exception of BLUE BIRD" and "JOKE"
And with the "GRAP" you can travel around Bali with a friendly price.
Chef Allan
Tuesday 7th of January 2025
If local taxis are loosing trade due to cheaper alternatives then drop the prices. Also make local taxis part of the online transportation so that everyone can get the same amount of customers.
Mark
Tuesday 7th of January 2025
why is it never mentioned that the local drive is always want to charge for five or six times more than an online driver to do the same job maybe if the local drivers was smart and brought their prices down more people might use them and the thing about safety is something they need to organize themselves they should have their own call center so that everyone that orders a taxi has the same safety that an online taxi has I'm sorry but when I say the way local taxi drivers Act around different hotspots there's no way I would get him one I live in Bali and I only ever use online taxis and I know many tourists who come here regularly that all feel the same they are embarrassed and uncomfortable at the way local taxi drivers react in hot spots which gives them an ill feeling and makes them feel unsafe getting into a car that is not registered through an online agency or bluebird taxis or something like that guys if you competitive you wouldn't have this problem it's like a spa there are many spies and they all compete against each other and keep their prices similar well if you Texas kept your process similar instead of trying to people off and charge them four or five times more money then you would be competitive too and you wouldn't have this problem
and what do we all think is going to happen when the underground railway if ever it comes comes and more buses and these water transport and water taxis this is all going to take work away from local drivers as well and from my understanding it's not the local taxis it's a local drivers that are causing the problems
they also need to look why do all tourists know to get a bluebird taxi because they have the same price in every taxi and the meter is on and they are more often honest there's always a bad one in the bunch whereas if you get in a non-blueblo taxi most of the time they want to negotiate a price and not use a meter all these things need to be looked at this two sides to every story and I agree that the Balinese people should be looked after first and foremost before anybody 100% agree with that but they also have to look after the tourists as well to keep the tourists coming
Kjames
Tuesday 7th of January 2025
Taxi drivers have to accept a lot of the blame. Especially at night,they would refuse to use the meter and want to charge exhorbant prices.
Robert
Tuesday 7th of January 2025
If the drivers were a little less expensive they would not need to fear online services.