Officials Warn Of Growing Struggle Against Bali Tourist Taxi Scams 

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The Bali Transportation Agency, known as Dishub, has revealed that it is battling against a range of taxi scams in tourism hotspots.

While this is an issue that has been around for decades, leaders are concerned that the number of fake taxis and taxi drivers attempting to scam travelers is still too high. 

The Bali Transportation Agency is calling on taxi fleet operators to keep a close eye on all aspects of their operations, especially off-boarding drivers and vehicles.

Many fear that taxi drivers who used to work for respected taxi companies are misusing old uniforms and even decommissioned branded vehicles to operate their own rouge operations. 

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Speaking to the press about the issue, the Head of Bali Transportation Agency, Gede Wayan Samsi Gunarta, admitted that it has been increasingly difficult to monitor each taxi and taxi business in Bali.

He confirmed that the number of registered taxis in Bali is around 3,150 fleets. In addition to the taxi fleet, Bali Transportation Agency must also supervise buses and goods transportation and also oversee what is referred to as ‘special rental transportation,’ which is all online taxi vehicles that amount to 10,300 vehicles in Bali. 

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Samsi noted, “The number of taxis is large, and Dishub is not only supervising taxis.” He touched upon recent footage of a fake taxi attempting to extort huge fares from a tourist who had booked only a short trip.

The viral video showed the taxi driver attempting to hustle the tourist out of IDR 400,000 for a ride from central Kuta to central Seminyak, a journey that, on the meter, would cost closer to IDR 200,000 at worst. 

Samsi expressed his desire to see a better-established taxi cooperative created that oversees the legitimacy of taxis and taxi drivers. He added, “We would ask this cooperative to switch so that no longer taxies are owned by each person.”

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One of Indonesia’s biggest taxi companies, Bluebird, held a marketing event in South Kuta earlier this week. During the event, leaders from the company, along with the Dishub team, discussed ways in which tourists can keep themselves safe from taxi scams and how Bluebird is working to eliminate taxi scams on the island. 

The Chief Marketing Officer of PT Blue Bird, Mediko Azwar, explained that Bluebird as a business is too suffering losses as a result of rouge taxi drivers co-opting the brand for their own gain.

He said that there are over 1,200 legitimate Bluebird taxi drivers in Bali Province but that many tourists cannot distinguish between a real Bluebird taxi and a well-disguised fake. 

Bluebird has created a checklist for tourists to refer to so that they know they are choosing a legitimate Bluebird taxi and driver. Azwar said, “We hope that everyone can socialize and provide education so that people will increasingly know how to differentiate.”

Online taxi providers in Bali, such as Grab and GoJek, have a series of in-app security features so that passengers can confirm the fare, the vehicle details, and the driver’s identity before setting off on their journey. 

While Bluebird offers a ride-hailing service via the app, tourists can also hail a Bluebird taxi on the street or from a taxi rank. This is where things get a little trickier.

Often, fake taxi drivers are ex-Bluebird or branded taxi drivers and, therefore, have both uniforms and/or a branded vehicle.

Tourists in a hurry or struggling with a language barrier don’t necessarily have the capacity to conduct in-depth checks. The key giveaway is that a legitimate Bluebird taxi driver will unquestionably use the meter and honor that set rate.

Nevertheless, Birdbird taxis will always display a taxi ID number and the driver ID and show an IoT taxi device that is in use, and this information will correlate with the app.

The driver will be wearing the most up-to-date batik Bluebird uniform, and the vehicle will be branded with both the Bluebird logo and the iconic ‘taksi’ crown.