Sedikit cuplikan tentang taxi business di Singapore - dari blognya tukang taxi sana. Barangkali bisa dicari persamaan dengan penyedia uang/hutang di Indonesia.
March 24, 2009. Tuesday: The reality of taxi business in Singapore My cabby friend who called me the other day about meter called me again today, and told me that he is going to switch to a $77 rental taxi. But he also said he is thinking about quitting. But quitting will cost him $300 in fines, and he has no other job to fall back on. I told him to hang on for a while, at least to see how the lower rental would pan out for him. Again, the streets are full of taxis at night. Most of them are running around empty. According to the government 2008 figures, of the 894,682 motor vehicles in Singapore, 24,300 are taxis. And there were 92,535 valid taxi drivers license holders at the end of 2007. I am sure it has since gone well over 100 thousand by now, or 3 in every 100 Singaporeans. I think that is probably the highest percentage in the world. You may wonder: if the demand is not there, why there is still an oversupply? The answer lies in the fact that the taxi operating companies do not care about the demand in ridership. They only care about collecting rentals from the drivers. In the time of economic downturn, many people become jobless and they are the abundant source of supply of potential taxi drivers. The taxi companies recruit these people, train them, give them the license, and get them sign a taxi hiring contract for at least 6 months. In my case, if I quit within 6 months, I have to pay the company $300 for breaching contract. If I quit after 6 months, that is not a problem for the company either, as they constantly run the "training course" to recruit new taxi drivers. The government figures say that fresh taxi drivers' license is given out at the rate of more than 5000 a year. So, this is the reality of Singapore's taxi industry today. The taxi operating companies do all they can to get every taxi of theirs rented out to drivers, no matter how the demand on the streets is like. As long as rentals are collected everyday, they can not care less how the drivers survive on streets. You can't blame them, though. All companies operate to seek maximum profit. Sedikit penjelasan tentang perumpamaannya dari cerita di atas: - taxi company menyediakan mobil dan merekrut (training) driver. Motif mereka adalah untuk sebanyak-banyaknya mendapatkan uang rental dari driver-driver yang mereka rekrut. Semakin banyak driver, semakin kaya taxi company. Mereka tidak perduli dengan driver yang cuma mendapatkan uang 'break-even' dengan ongkos rental taxinya. Menurut teori pasar bebas, taxi company dibiarkan menyediakan sebanyak mungkin driver taxi. Yang membatasi adalah mampu tidaknya sang driver ini mendapatkan uang dari narik taxi yang lebih besar dari harga rental taxi per hari. Semakin banyak taksi, semakin kecil pendapatan driver, tapi semakin besar pendapatan perusahaan taksi. Ini berarti juga semakin banyak supir taksi yang 'bangkrut' dan berhenti bekerja padahal sudah bayar 280 dolar uang training. Jadi efek sampingnya dari pasar bebas ini adalah banyaknya supir taksi yang bangkrut. Dalam hal devisa, negara-negara pengutang adalah sama dengan supir-supir taksi. Mereka meminjam mobil taksi (uang) dan harus membayar sewa (rental per hari) untuk bisa hidup. Perusahaan taxi (dalam hal ini hedge fund, bandar, investor, dll) akan selalu berusaha memperbanyak supir-supir taksinya agar mereka bisa mendapatkan uang rental yang semakin banyak. Pertanyaannya, jika sopir taksi bangkrut, barangkali ini cuma masalah kecil, mikro. Kalau negara bangkrut (macam iceland), apakah ini masalah kecil? Apakah kita ingin dikenal sebagai negara besar, penduduk 210 juta tapi negaranya bangkrut? Dinyatakan pula bahwa perusahaan taksi akan menerima uang 'fine" kalau supir taksi break kontrak. Dalam hal pinjaman luar negeri, bukankah dari dulu hak kreditur yang selalu didahulukan oleh lembaga-lembaga internasional (misalnya dengan memberi nasihat agar terus mempertahankan kurs mata uang dan melayani arus modal keluar yang terjadi pada masa panik?) Then again, barangkali saya cuma curhat saja.... ngalor ngidul gak gerti apa-apa... Anggap hiburan saja kalau dianggap tidak nyambung. --- In obrolan-bandar@yahoogroups.com, Pak AA <pakaa2...@...> wrote: > > Buset deh nyaris 1000 trilyun rupiah ya? > Bunganya 8% aja jadi 80 Trilyun... Pantes aja 2010 bayar bunga aja 115 > trilyun > > On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 1:49 PM, Bambang Irwanto <bemben...@...>wrote: > > > * > > **right now, Indonesia Govt. Bond Outstanding is RP > > 974,297,524,463,886.00,* > > *I guest we'll stay at free float for some time with **$0.1 trillions outs > > bond and $0.05 trillions reserve.* > > * > > *
