There is definitely a new trend in the way taxi drivers address their bule customer. I discovered it about two weeks ago and until today, it is still getting worse. Maybe it is just my imagination, or coincidence, but I feel there is a new trend.
I’ve been living in Jakarta for more than a year now, using the taxi as my major means of transportation. This is because we only have one company driver and one company car, which is used by the big boss whenever he is in Jakarta (about 80% of the time). In all that time, I only had one bad experience a taxi driver, and that was mainly because, at that time, I did not speak enough Indonesian to point the driver in the right way to “Mal Kelapa Gading” (he probably knew the way himself, but later he explained he was ‘baru’ (new) and had never been to Mal Kelapa Gading before). This occurrence guided me to learn at least the right words for turn left, turn right, go straight and make a u-turn in Indonesian. After that I had no trouble in taking any taxi (even “Tarif Lama”). Until two weeks ago.
Because the taxi company that services the apartments I live in does not have too many taxis, they often run out of taxis in the morning. If that happens, I usually go outside the compound and stop a taxi in the Tanjung Duren Raya (which is a busy street so it never takes me more than 1 minute to get one). I stop one of the white taxis and get in. After the good mornings, he asks me “Where to mister?” (they always say “mister”). “Ke Tanjung Duren Selatan, Pak”. He looks at in a strange way and than says: “To Airport? Ya?”. I explain to him I don’t want to go to airport, but to my office. The guy gets a little angry and says that he thinks it is a too short ride, but still, he delivers me to the office.
Two days later, I manage to get hold of another taxi in the same way. The driver also thinks it is too short to take a taxi so he offers to not use the meter. I say to him that I want him to use the meter but he bluntly refuses… so I say he will get not more than 10000 for the ride (the standard I give; it is normally about 8000 if the meter is used). Arriving at the office, I give him 10000. He says it is not enough and I should pay him at least 20000, which I off course refuse.
A few days later, it even happened with a taxi that serves the apartments. Again the taxi driver offers to drive me without using the meter. So I say that he has the choice of driving me and using the meter, or not using the meter, but driving without me. If you take a taxi that has to queue for his next ride, this is a good way to handle it, because he looses his place in the queue and it can take a long time before he gets first in the queue again. So the driver turns on the meter and drives me.
Saturday, Sam (a colleague from QnAp) and I went to practice on the Pluit MegaMal Driving Range. After practicing, we wanted to go to Manga Dua Mall, so we take a taxi from the queue at MegaMal. The driver also did not want to use the meter, but we made him to…
It seems that all drivers stop want to using the meter when a “bule” gets in the car… But the one I had yesterday was even more frank: he demanded I pay him 15000 for an 8000 ride, because the 15000 is the minimum. When I did not want to pay him he got very angry and aggressive. I paid the 5000 extra (I wanted to pay him 10000) and left the car.
I learnt some lessons in the last few days: I will note down the drivers name in future and make a complained at his taxi company if he tries to trick me…