JAKARTA. One by one, conventional taxi companies build synergies with online based transportation companies. Recently, on 31 January, PT Blue Bird Tbk (BIRD) has officially built partnership with PT Gojek Indonesia. Previously, two other conventional taxi companies, namely Taksi Putra and PT Express Transindo Tbk (TAXI) had partnered with online based transportation companies Grab and Uber, respectively.
Under the cooperation scheme, the users of Go-Jek application can order Blue Bird taxi through Go-Car feature. By using the application, the users will be charged with Go-Car’s tariff and can benefit from the discount of Go-Pay feature.
Even though the users pay with the Go-Car tariff, Blue Bird ensures that the Blue Bird driver will receive the payment based on conventional taxi tariff.
Thousands of Blue Bird taxis have been connected with Go-Car. Blue Bird is targeting to connect 20,000 units of taxis with Go-Car by the end of 2017.
The partnership is part of BIRD’s strategy to improve its performance. In the third quarter of 2016, the profits of BIRD dropped by 50% compared with 2015. The tight competition with the online taxi had contributed to the decrease in the BIRD’s profits.
“We are targeting to grew profits in this year, even though the profits would unlikely be as high as during the glorious years,” Financial Director of Blue Bird Fransetya Hutabarat told KONTAN, Wednesday (1/1).
Despite of the partnership, the application of My Blue Bird remains active as usual. Director of Blue Bird Adrianto Djokosoetono said that the operation of My Blue Bird application aims at anticipating the demands on Blue Bird’s services.
Previously, on 21 December 2016 Express Transindo signed a partnership with Uber. Under the ridesharing scheme, Express taxi drivers can receive orders through Uber application, while the Uber’s partners can repay the Express vehicles without the attribute of ‘Taxi’.
Unfortunately, both Uber Indonesia and Express Transindo still refused to share information related to the progress of the collaboration. “The information (related to the collaboration) remains unavailable,” said Head of Communication of Uber Indonesia Dian Safitri.
Meanwhile, Director of PT Citra Maharlika Nusantara Corpora Tbk Jofial Mecca Alwis said that the company is also exploring to build partnership with some online based transportation companies. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)
