Heaptalk, Jakarta — On Tuesday (05/20), thousands of online motorcycle taxi drivers held a protest at the MPR Building. One of their demands was to change their status from partner to employee. This request has made online ride-hailing service providers reconsider, as such a policy could significantly reduce their revenue and the number of drivers.
Ryan Rwanda, the Business Director of inDrive Indonesia, met with the press at his office and estimated that around 90% of partner drivers would likely be terminated if their status were changed to employees. Ride-hailing companies must fulfill various formal worker rights for online ride-hailing drivers. “From our perspective, based on my earlier calculations, only about 10-13% of drivers might remain active. This is a rough estimate, and their monthly earnings could drop by up to 7%,” Ryan explained.
This policy would also impact other stakeholders in the ecosystem, such as MSME merchants who sell on online platforms. Online ride-hailing partners would be subject to working hours if converted into formal employees. Ryan elaborated, “If drivers become permanent employees, we would naturally impose stricter requirements. We would have to provide them with social security, additional insurance, etc. That would drastically reduce the number of drivers due to these added burdens.”
On the same occasion, Tirza Munusamy, Chief of Public Affairs at Grab Indonesia, also touched on the loss of freedom that partner drivers would face if they became formal employees. She stated that changing drivers’ status to employees would bind them to employment contracts with the ride-hailing companies, eliminating the time flexibility that currently comes with being an online ojek driver.
“We also serve as a social safety net, for instance, for people waiting for job opportunities, students who need extra income, and so on. With this flexibility, they can choose whether or not to take rides—it’s up to them,” Tirza said.
Echoing Ryan and Tirza, Catherine Hindra Sutjahyo, President of On-Demand Services at GoTo, argued that the partnership system with online ojek drivers prioritizes flexibility. This way, drivers are free to operate or not, as they are not directly tied to the company. “Therefore, we see this as an attractive model. A model that provides flexibility for the ecosystem to accommodate more people who want to work and earn additional income,” Catherine concluded.
