Motorcycle taxi drivers working for online ride-hailing start-ups protest to lower the commission they pay, and demand higher pay in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 20, 2025. — Reuters
Grab Holdings Ltd and GoTo Group ride-hailing and delivery services are set to be disrupted on May 20 in Indonesia, their biggest market, with tens of thousands of drivers preparing to protest over compensation and other terms.
The strike comes at a delicate time for the South-East Asian Internet leaders, as Singapore-based Grab has been negotiating to buy its Indonesian rival for more than US$7bil (RM30bil). Drivers in Indonesia, a country of more than 275 million people, are protesting what they describe as exploitative app policies and regulatory negligence.
More than 25,000 car and motorcycle drivers are expected to join the demonstrations starting after 1pm local time, according to the Garda Indonesia association for such workers. Many have traveled from towns across Java and Sumatra, and have been camping and gathering at various locations across the capital.
Social media reports have shown more than a hundred drivers are starting to gather at several sites on Tuesday afternoon. The presidential palace, the transport ministry, the parliament, and app company offices are among the sites planned for the protest, as well as about a dozen other major cities including Yogyakarta and Surabaya, according to Garda. In Jakarta, the police have said it will deploy more than 2,500 personnel to secure protest sites.
Like their peers globally, Grab and GoTo have been scrutinized by unions and regulators over terms for their drivers, who typically aren’t on payroll and don’t share the same benefits as full-time employees. Last week, an Indonesia transport workers’ union said it’s opposing the planned combination of Grab and GoTo on concerns that their increased market power could suppress drivers’ earnings, local news outlet Tempo reported.
Grab is moving forward with the takeover attempt, evaluating GoTo’s accounts, contracts and operations as they work toward a combination, Bloomberg reported in March. The companies are seeking to reach an agreement for a deal in the second quarter, Reuters reported this month.
Grab, which is backed by Uber Technologies Inc, has held on-and-off talks with GoTo, but a merger never materialised, partly because of antitrust concerns likely to arise from combining two dominant South-East Asian tech companies. Uber left the region in 2018 in exchange for its stake in Grab, and smaller competitors haven’t eaten significantly into Grab and GoTo’s market share.
Indonesia is South-East Asia’s largest market for ride-hailing services. The strike may cause widespread disruptions to on-demand services, with drivers planning to log off their platforms for 24 hours – affecting passenger transport, food delivery and courier services nationwide.
The protest is organized by Garda, one of the country’s largest driver associations, which accuses the government of failing to enforce platform commission rules introduced three years ago.
"This is the peak of our frustration,” Garda Chairman Raden Igun Wicaksono said in a phone interview Monday. "We won’t stop until our demands are met. If they aren’t, the actions could escalate and tensions may rise.”
Drivers are demanding a 10% cap on platform commissions, removal of discounted ride programs, and regulated pricing for delivery services. They are also calling on Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to sanction companies that violate existing transport rules, and urging parliament to convene a hearing with regulators, firms and driver groups.
The protest involves drivers from multiple platforms, including GoTo, Grab, Maxim, InDrive, Lalamove and Sea Ltd’s Shopee. A separate driver coalition says it won’t join the strike, calling it politically motivated, according to local media. – Bloomberg
