An Estimate of the Ojek Driver Wage Rate in Maumere

Like many of our other 'Basket of Goods' fans, I'm always curious about how much things cost around the world. Indonesia has so far been the cheapest country in our travels. Fruit, taxis, and haircuts are all very inexpensive. It's easy to observe these prices, but it is a little tougher to infer wages in an informal market. This is my back-of-the-envelope calculation of the wage rate for a motorbike taxi driver. The information was collected from direct observation, transactions, and discussions with local Indonesians. A number of assumptions are made based on observations and best educated guesses.

Background:

The primary method for getting around Maumere is either by overcrowded mini-bus called a 'Bemoh,' or on the back of motorbike taxi called an 'Ojek.' Anyone with a motorbike can be an Ojek driver (there isn't any specific designation), and all bikes travel at the same relative speed (frighteningly fast).

Revenue:

We routinely traveled the 25 minute ride between downtown Maumere and the Sao Resort where our boat was anchored for 10,000 IDR. Some rides were longer (about 40 minutes to the museum, or 60 minutes to our friend Nofi's home), yet we paid the same rate of 10,000 IDR for each of those rides. Throughout Indonesia, we have often paid higher prices than the locals (on account of being obvious tourists). Our 'Tourist markup' has ranged from 33 to 200%. 10,000 IDR for a 25 minute ride is thus an upper-bound.

On one morning ride into town, I counted empty ojeks out of a 10 bike sample every two minutes. I considered those carrying people, rice, baked goods, water bottles, or other cargo as 'occupied.' On this particular ride, I found an average of 4.2 Ojeks out of ten to be 'available.' Given this assumption of 42% of the driver's time spent looking for rides, a driver could fit approximately 11 rides into an 8 hour workday. Since many ojeks do not roam, but rather park and wait in central locations (such as the market), there are likely more empty bikes in the town at any one time than roaming the streets. Thus this estimate is similarly an upper-bound.

Using this information, the upper-bound estimate of a driver's expected daily revenue is 110,000 IDR.

Costs:

The following information was collected from discussions with staff at the Sao Resort, a taxi driver, and two different ojek drivers. The bikes used as ojek's are simple 50cc gasoline powered motorbikes. A bike might last 10 years and a new Honda or Yamaha costs around 50,000,000 IDR. A driver might put four liters of gasoline in the bike to cover a full day's worth of driving, and the maintenance costs of a bike are low (I am assuming 15% of the bike's value over its lifetime).

Using a ten-year time horizon with no salvage value, a 15% lifetime maintenance cost, and a 5% discount rate, the present value daily cost of owning a motorbike is 20,401 IDR. The cost of a day's worth of driving (four liters of gasoline at 4,500 IDR/liter) is 18,000 IDR.

It is unclear whether these costs represent a lower or upper bound. A different discount rate (due to fewer alternative investment options, uncertainty in the stability of the rupiah, or a high probability of accidents), lower maintenance costs, a higher salvage value, or alternative and cheaper brands of new bikes can skew this estimate in either direction. However, all of the assumptions made are based upon the best information available at the time.

The expected daily cost of operating an ojek is thus 38,401 IDR.

Results:

Using the above estimates for the revenue and cost over an 8 hour workday, an ojek driver's expected daily take-home income is 71,599 IDR. This equates to 8,950 IDR per hour. Using 8,817 IDR as the 1 USD equivalent, the expected value estimate for the hourly wage of an ojek driver is 1.02 USD per hour.

In comparison with the other informal low-skill jobs visible in Maumere (fisherman, market vendor, restaurant operator, bemoh driver), ojek drivers seemed to be on average wealthier and better dressed. Most had cellular phones and fashionable helmets. Becoming an ojek driver requires a significant up-front investment. Shop-owners, taxi drivers, bank employees, and government officials, in turn were clearly wealthier than ojek drivers. Within the context of the full labor marker, the ojek driver wage rate appears to be higher than most informal low-skill jobs, however certainly lower than the formal skilled labor market.

Please keep in mind that this is a back-of-the-envelope calculation in its truest form (I even did some of the math on the back of an envelope).

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The Lakes of Kelimutu

Indonesia is a chain of volcanic islands. Since arriving in the archipelago, we've sailed amongst giant volcanoes; some with visible steaming lava flows, others with plumes of smoke and steam rising from their peaks.

Although we missed the active volcanoes of Vanuatu, we were able to squeeze in a trip in Indonesia to a different, yet very impressive mountain.

Kelimutu is a tall, dormant volcano on the island of Flores with three craters at the top. Each crater has a lake in it, and although the lakes are very close to each other, they vary drastically in color. When we visited, one lake was dark blue, the other a bright teal, and the third was black. Over time, these lakes slowly and unpredictably change color.

The traditional belief on Flores was that when you died, your soul traveled to Kelimutu where a gatekeeper determined which lake you would enter. It is thus a very sacred and special place.

We hired a car and driver to take us up to Kelimutu for 750,000 rupiah, leaving at 3:30 AM in order to see the sunrise at the top. When we arrived, the mountain was shrouded in clouds, and remained so for the first two hours or so. We hiked to the rim of each lake, but could only see a thick white abyss below us. We also found a sign labeled 'feeding ground' but saw no animals to feed.

As we began to walk back, we stopped once more at the first crater, and slowly the clouds parted, giving us spectacular views of the three lakes (each of which was much larger and further down than we had anticipated).

And to top off a delightful morning, as we passed the feeding ground, we were pleasantly surprised to see a brand new creature for EYE of the World.

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Please Don't Burn the Koran

Before embarking on this journey, I was a current-events fiend. While working in my office, I would periodically check my favorite news sites to keep tabs on the latest news of the world.

Here on the boat, I don't have that luxury. I often won't get around to downloading my Google News feed until we're on our second or third day near shore. I therefore very much enjoy when friends and family send news updates via e-mail.

As we approached the island of Kisar, we checked our e-mails, and were disappointed to find out that someone in Florida was organizing a burning of the Islamic holy book, the Koran (spellings vary).

I don't know much more about the situation, but to whomever is organizing the event: Please don't do that.

Besides the insensitivity involved in any book burning (much less a holy book important to a large proportion of the world's population), it doesn't accomplish anything positive. Plus, it makes our lives out here more complicated.

As part of the EYE of the World crew, we serve as the eyes and ears of participating students in the US. However, we also serve as international ambassadors for our students (and oftentimes the United States as a whole). I'm very proud to be an American Citizen, but unfortunately, out here, we're sometimes wary about openly declaring ourselves as so.

Indonesians living on a remote island may have never met Americans before, but they do hear stories about book burnings in Florida. You and I both know that Americans are fun, honest, outgoing, good-hearted people, but you might not know that if you haven't met one personally.

I am happy to tell you that Bahamian, Turks and Caican, Dominican, Jamaican, Colombian, Panamanian, Equadorian, Marquesan, Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, Vanuatan, Australian, and Indonesian people are warm-hearted and good-natured. I can speak kindly of almost everyone we've met on our travels, and I hope that after their encounter with the EYE of the World crew, they feel positively about Americans too.

But for those of you back at home, please be aware of your actions and their implications. Things that happen in the US make the news world-wide. Things like a Koran book-burning don't reflect kindly upon Americans, and unfortunately, EYE of the World can't visit everyone in the world ... and show them that Americans are good people too.

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Half a World Apart ...

... yet so very much the same.

During our time here in Darwin, we found ourselves the willing guests, and unwilling source of amusement of the Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Association. Although this club doesn't have much for an anchorage off its shores, it does boast a great floating dinghy dock, careening posts, a do-it-yourself work shed, great views, showers, and a fantastic group of yachties.

Our stay was very reminiscent of our time at Crown Pointe Marina, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, and Luperon Harbor. In each of our prior 'homes,' we met great people and had an excellent venue for us to work on the boat/explore.

For anyone following in our footsteps, stop by Dinah Beach and say hello - you won't regret it.

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