On my recent trip to Jakarta, I was pleasantly surprised by the actions of a taxi driver. Before my trip, I had heard horror stories about corruption in Indonesia. The country is after all number .. On transparency international’s ranking.
When I gave my taxi driver a rp100,000 note (around 10usd), the driver told me he didn’t have any change. I was his first hire at 7am. The fare was rp25000 (around usd2.50). When he informed me he would drop the change off at my hotel, I thought it would be extremely unlikely. I figured this would be a very generous involuntary ‘tip’.
Imagine my surprise that evening when the hotel front desk called me to let me know that the taxi driver had left rp75,000 at the front desk.
This act of honesty and integrity is very refreshing, more so in light of the fact that much of the population subsist on a daily wage of around rp50,000. Some digging with the Bluebird and Silverbird taxi drivers revealed some interesting facts.
1. The position of taxi driver in the Bluebird group is often oversubscribed many times overs.
2. The taxi drivers are paid based on commission and a fixed basic.
3. The company takes complaints seriously and acts swiftly to deal with errant drivers.
Key takeaways:-
1. There are honest people everywhere – never pre judge just because to the surrounding circumstances.
2. Honesty and Integrity can be trained and maintained by the processes of an organization – reward and recognition structure.
