spicyayam wroteI am not sure what the problem local drivers have with these ride sharing apps. Is it because they don't want to pay a commission to the booking company? But they are happy to receive commissions themselves from hotels and restaurants.
Wouldn't it be better as a driver to have a steady stream of jobs than just sitting by the side of the street and waiting for people to approach them.
You are absolutely right, but you're being far too logical. This is Indonesia after all ;)
From what I gather reading the frequent stories and back and forth between expats and drivers on the Ubud community fb page, it seems that many bali drivers are organized into an informal mafia based on their town/village, in which any attempt by outside drivers to pick up fares is met by hostility and often violence. The mafia drivers hate the apps because they undercut the cartel pricing that has been established in their area and also facilitate outside drivers to operate on their 'turf'.
For example, assume a Kuta driver picks up a passenger at the airport to go to Ubud, which normally costs around 250-300k. If the Kuta driver has an app like gojek, uber or grab, he could arrange a pick up in Ubud for the return trip to Kuta, thereby avoiding having an empty car for the return. He wants to secure the job, so offers 150k as the price which is obviously better than zero if he returns empty. This p*sses off the Ubud driver mafia to no end, as they then are deprived of the 300k cartel price they charge for the journey to the airport. So if the Kuta driver is identified picking up a passenger in Ubud, he may just get himself beat up by the thugs. Of course, the reason the Ubud driver charges 300k is that he anticipates returning home empty, unless he risks using the app to pick up a passenger at the airport, where if detected he may get beaten up by the driver mafia at the airport. So, net net, there are lots of expensive one way trips where tourists, the environment and yes even the drivers lose.
