Truck drivers' action to reject ODOL action
Indonesia is considered to need to follow China and Thailand's example in dealing with the issue of Over Dimension Over Loading (ODOL) vehicles. The Head of the Indonesian Road Development Association (HPJI) DPP, Purnomo, said that the government's approach so far has not touched the root of the problem, so that ODOL violations continue to occur in various regions.
Why is the ODOL control never finished? Because the government's way of dealing with ODOL is irrational. It never touches on the increase in transportation costs," said Purnomo in a webinar, Tuesday (06/24/2025).
According to him, the ODOL ban policy often meets resistance from business actors because it has the potential to increase logistics costs.
Once transportation is cut in half, transportation costs increase. Business people don't want it, then industry protests, trade protests because prices increase. That results in inflation and so on," he explained.
As an alternative, Purnomo encouraged Indonesia to learn from China and Thailand which implement an integrated supervision system and impose comprehensive sanctions on all parties involved in ODOL violations. "In Thailand and China, overloaded vehicles are called. Who owns the goods, who receives the goods, who owns the vehicle. All three are fined," he continued.
On the same occasion, Director General (Dirjen) of Bina Marga Roy Rizali Anwar said that the practice of using ODOL vehicles has caused state losses of up to IDR 43.47 trillion every year for the past decade.
In addition to burdening the budget, ODOL vehicles also accelerate damage to road infrastructure and increase the risk of traffic accidents. "Adding a load on the vehicle axle from the provision of 10 tons for class one roads to 13 tons will increase the road damage factor three times and reduce the design life from 10-11 years to only 3 years," he said.
