The government is to limit the number of vehicles transporting export or import goods on the peak days of mudik in late May and early June to prevent congestion during the annual Idul Fitri exodus.
The Transportation Ministry is distributing QR code stickers for displaying on vehicles that are permitted to use major mudik routes during the Idul Fitri holiday.
Land transportation director Ahmad Yani at the ministry’s directorate general for land transportation said that the government applied a similar measure last year for several commercial vehicle associations.
“We are still prioritizing passenger vehicles for the mudik season, but we will provide special treatment for vehicles carrying exported and imported goods, as their [distribution] cannot be delayed to ensure economic stability,” Yani recently told reporters at the ministry.
Road authorities can scan the unique QR code on the stickers to read information about the vehicle and its chassis number, so the stickers cannot be misused for transporting unregistered cargo, Yani added.
“We aim to have the stickers ready two weeks before May 31, when we will begin limiting the number of freight vehicles,” he said.
The stickers are to be distributed in cooperation with the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) and the Indonesian Truck Business Association (Aptrindo).
Around 100 vehicles belonging to Organda members and 5,000 vehicles belonging to Aptrindo members have already registered for the stickers.
“We estimate that around 800 of our members’ trucks will be transporting staple goods during this year’s mudik,” Organda vice chairman for passenger vehicles Priyatmedi said on the same occasion. “Out of that number, 100 trucks will be transporting export or import containers.”
Aptrindo vice chairman for cross-country vehicles Yusuf Widjaja said that it should be easier to oversee export and import distribution during the exodus season due to a significantly lower volume of transported goods, with many production and trading activities halting temporarily over Idul Fitri.
“We applied for 5,000 stickers based on our calculations of the number of trucks that applied for the same facility last year,” he said at the press conference. “The figure should not change by much.”
The National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas) will also be deployed to aid Transportation Ministry officials in overseeing the restriction on operating export and import vehicles.
Road patrol and escorts head Sr. Comr. Bambang Sentot Widodo of the Korlantas law enforcement division said it would focus on the Cikampek and Cipali toll roads near the industrial parks in northern Java, where the annual exodus traffic was the heaviest.
In addition to these toll roads, Korlantas would assist in limiting the number of freight transport on 17 toll roads and seven highways across Java.
“We will stop all non-stickered import and export freight vehicles and redirect them to designated stops until the flow of mudik traffic has subsided, or until they can prove that they were approved for the stickers [but failed to display the stickers],” said Bambang. “Otherwise, we will remove them from the supervised roads or fine them.”
Source :- Thejakartapost.com
