Indonesia’s Ministry of Transport on Tuesday removed the ban for motorcycle taxis (ojek) to carry passengers. This means that Gojek and Grab can now operate their ride-hailing services with health protocols in cities where the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) have been loosened.
Health protocols require drivers and customers to use masks. Ojek drivers also have to use hand gloves and offer hair nets for customers who don’t bring their own helmets.
The ride-hailing operators further have to set up the health posts in each city to disinfect motorcycles and cars, measure body temperatures, and offer hand sanitizer.
The government also recommends motorcycles drivers to use a partition between them and customers, to increase safety and the customers’ trust in using the transport.
Nila Marita, chief of corporate affairs at Gojek, said that the firm has implemented the cleanliness and health procedures. Besides requiring drivers and customers to use masks and health kits, Gojek has also set up 130 health posts in 16 cities. The posts provide the health kits, disinfectants, and temperature screening.
Marita added that Gojek has become the first app in Indonesia to launch a health information feature, so that customers can see the drivers’ body temperature and disinfection status of the vehicle.
“The feature not only helps users to feel safe and make sure that the service fulfills health and hygiene standards, but also helps driver-partners to work calmly,” Marita told KrASIA.
Selfie-tech controls drivers
On the other hand, Grab announced it will launch two new in-app services by end of June—a health and hygiene declaration form, as well as a feature that verifies via selfies that the driver is wearing a mask.
Grab recently established more than 40 sanitation stations in Indonesia, as part of an initiative called “GrabProtect”, to measure the body temperatures of its driver-partners before they start their day.
Neneng Goenadi, managing director at Grab Indonesia, said the company has educated driver-partners and provides them with health kits, hand sanitizers, masks, gloves, and also plastic partitions to put between drivers and passengers. Grab is obliging passengers to bring their own helmets.
Both Grab and Gojek have resumed their online taxi services on Monday in Jakarta, when the local government loosened the social restrictions.
Since the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, most cities in the country applied large-scale restriction policies, prohibiting motorbike services to carry passengers which impacted the two largest ride-hailing companies.