Edited: 22/05/23
We meet again after almost a year (sorry TwT)
To be honest, this post’s draft has been sitting in my laptop since November last year. I, however, procrastinated and forgot that I’ve even written this to the point that I was surprised when I opened my folder.
By the way, since my last post, there's a development in Surabaya where a new place to extend one's SIM was opened in late 2020. The new SIM Corner is located at a place called Praxis, located near TP in the center of the city. According to a friend and one of my lecturers, this new place has better system and the process is faster, so it can be an alternative for you all.
Anyway, as I’ve said on my previous post, today I’ll be telling you more about the driving license and regulations every driver in Indonesia has to know, in particular those who drive a car or motorcycle. I think I’ll explain the traffic laws in my next post, as this post is going to be long enough already I feel.
In particular, other that regarding our driving licenses, I’ll be telling you about things like the license plate and the driving side and standards. Hopefully I can control myself not to write too much and bore you with unnecessary rants….
Right, let’s get on to it then!
We’ll start with, once again, my ‘favourite’ topic, the driving licenses. As I’ve said on my previous post, and really, the post before that one too, we in Indonesia have three common driving licenses, A, B, and C, along with a special one for handicapped people, the D driving license.
In Bahasa Indonesia, we call driving license as SIM (read as sim, not spelled per alphabet). It is the abbreviation of Surat Izin Mengemudi, which translates as something along the line of ‘Driving License Certificate’. Even though it’s called surat (which by itself means a letter or mail), the driving license comes in a plastic card form, similar to our ID Card or like a standard credit card found world-wide.
The new SIM contains information such as your name, place and date of birth, your blood type and gender, your address, your occupation, and a photo of you, along with the type of the SIM, it’s number series, and the expiry date. The previous SIM has a blue colour, whilst the new one has a red and white colour, in mimic of Indonesia’s flag I guess. The blood type is used for in the unlikely event of an emergency: if you ever got into an accident and lost a lot of blood and need blood transfusion but you are unconscious. By looking at your SIM, the hospital can give the correct blood type for transfusion.
The minimum age one needs to be to get A, C, or D driving license is 17 years old, the same as our ID Card age requirement. For the B driving license, though, one needs to be 20-21 years old to apply. This driving license has to be extended every five years and before the expiry date listed on the SIM, as even one day passed that means you have to make a new one.
Making a new one and extending an already existing one is, of course, very different. When making one, you have to pass both a writing and a practical exam on top of the health and the newly-induced psychological tests, pay a higher fee, and make it in the central offices only. When extending, however, you can do it in some other places we call ‘SIM Corner’, which are smaller offices or cars operated by the police, exist for the sole purpose of serving people who need to extend their driving license(s).
Edit: Now you can also extend your driving license through an application (see the police's official page for more information), though I think you still have to come to particular clinics to obtain your health test results. My sister did this earlier this year because extending through SIM Corners can only be done on the day (or was it 7 days before?) your driving license expired and she will be abroad during that time. Through this app, she can extend her license almost a month before it expired, though the payment has to be done through mobile or internet banking.
Moving on, I’ll explain in depth about the types of driving licenses in Indonesia.
SIM A (private), which is for people who drive private passenger or goods cars no heavier than 3,500 kg.
SIM A Umum (public), which is for people who drive public passenger or goods cars no heavier than 3,500 kg (additional requirement: already has SIM A for at least 12 months).
SIM B I (private), which is for people who drive private passenger or goods cars heavier than 3,500 kg (additional requirement: already has SIM A for at least 12 months).
SIM B I Umum (public), which is for people who drive public passenger or goods cars heavier than 3,500 kg (additional requirement: already has SIM A Umum or SIM B I for at least 12 months).
SIM B II (private), which is for people who drive private towing vehicles, heavy vehicles, and trailer-attached vehicles (additional requirement: already has SIM B I for at least 12 months).
SIM B II Umum (public), which is for people who drive public towing vehicles, heavy vehicles, and trailer-attached vehicles (additional requirement: already has SIM B I Umum or SIM B II for at least 12 months).
SIM C (private), which is for people who drive motorcycles with less than 250 CC engine capacity.
SIM C I (private), which is for people who drive motorcycles with 250-500 CC engine capacity.
SIM C II (private), which is for people who drive motorcycles with more than 500 CC engine capacity.
SIM D (private), which is for people who drive motorcycles specifically designed for people with disabilities.
SIM D I (private), which is for people who drive cars specifically designed for people with disabilities.
SIM Internasional (private), which is for people who wants to drive outside Indonesia (in another country).
Alright, those are the driving licenses currently existing in Indonesia. If you wish to change your driving license type, you have to go through another simulation test first. Along with, of course, a health test and a psychology test.
Next, I’ll talk about our license plate.
Every vehicle in Indonesia has to have a license plate to be fully functioning on the road, and each vehicle has two license plates: one at the front and one at the back. These metal license plates have letters and numbers on them as their serial number. The common private vehicles have a black plate with white letterings, whilst the common public ones have a yellow plate with black letterings. There are also other colours. For example, a red plate with white letterings means that vehicle belongs to the government; a white plate with red letterings means that vehicle is still new and that plate is a temporary one, usually so that the car dealers can drive and deliver that vehicle to its new owner legally; a license plate decorated with a specific military insignia means that vehicle belongs to military personnel.
Edit: Per mid-2022, the black plate with white letterings for common vehicles was formally changed into a white plate with black letterings, said to be easier to see through CCTV cameras. Considering license plates are changed every 5 years, unless the name is changed, the black one will also still be legit until it expires.
These license plates have to be replaced every five years, and you may choose to change the serial numbers at that time. Actually every year all vehicle has to undergo a test to check its properness and the owner has to pay the fee for what we call STNK, short for Surat Tanda Nomor Kendaraan (Letter of Vehicle Numbers Mark). Every vehicle has to have one and in it there are information such as the vehicle’s brand, colour, engine type, owner, and serial number. These STNKs will also be renewed every five years, alongside the license plates, unless you sell it and the owner changes.
A common license plate looks something like this:
Per mid-2022, the common license plate looks something like this:
I’ll explain the components:
X represents the letter(s) that corresponds with each regions’ special letter. For example, our capital city, Jakarta, has the letter B; Surabaya has the letter L; Jogjakarta has the letters AB.
0000 represents the numbers that particular vehicle has, though I’m not sure where these number originated from.
YY represents the letters that I also don’t know corresponds with what but some people say it corresponds with which part of the city you live in (no proof though). It usually consists of two to three letters, depending on the number of vehicles exist in that region (my math professor said it’s because the probability increases a lot more when you add a letter rather than a number since there are 26 letters but only 10 numbers).
MM and YY represents the month and year that license plate expires and has to be renewed (every five years).
So for example you bought a new car in Surabaya on April 2020, then your car’s license plate will be something along this line:
Note that the numbers and two letters at the back is random (I think), so don’t look at it too deep. Focus on the first letter and the smaller numbers beneath the line. The first letter is L, because you bought it in Surabaya. The smaller number read 04-25 which means that by April 2025 your license plate has to be renewed, after which it may look like this:
Next, we’ll look at the common driving knowledge and safety.
In Indonesia, we steer at the left side of the rode and the car driver is on the right side of the car. We change the gears using our left hand and, from left to right, the pedals are the clutch, brake, then accelerator.
On the evening, around 5.30 P.M., all cars have to turn on their front lamp (is that what it’s called?). All cars must also bring along a complete first-aid box and traffic triangle in case of emergency. In regard of the safety belt, the ones who have to use it all times are the driver and the passenger riding shotgun AKA the two people sitting at the front. Passengers sitting at the middle or back row don’t have to put on their seatbelts.
As for motorcycles, all of them have to turn on their front lamp at all times when on the road, regardless of whether it was bright or dark outside. Everyone on a motorcycle, whether they are the driver or the passenger, have to wear a standardized helmet. A motorcycle should also only be ridden by two people at max, though it won’t be strange to see a motorcycle has three or even four people on it, usually a husband, a wife, and their two children (who might not wear any helmet).
Lastly, I want to talk a bit about our traffic light system. In Bahasa Indonesia, we call it lampu lalu lintas; sometimes we call it lampu merah, which means ‘red light’, simply because it’s shorter. The traffic light used in Indonesia use the same system as everywhere else: red means to stop, yellow means careful, and green means go. Traffic lights can be found in a lot of junctions, whether they’re the common 4-way junctions (called perempatan) or even the occasional 3-way junctions (called pertigaan).
These traffic lights can either be placed vertically or horizontally, and usually there are a minimum of two and a maximum of four lamps facing the drivers every which way with one of them on the side opposite.
When the red light flashes, all vehicles must stop behind the zebra cross line. Some cities also have junctions where there are special lined ‘boxes’ for motorcycles in front of the cars, AKA between the zebra cross line and the cars. The bigger junctions also have a left lane dedicated for motorcycles and public transportations.
In most cases, too, the right lane is for those who wishes to turn right, the middle lane is for those who wishes to go straight, and the left lane is for those who wishes to turn left. The traffic lights for the left lane usually differs and only applicable to the left lane, as sometimes it follows a different routine than the ones for going straight or to the right. Note that in this case, the leftmost traffic light will have a plaque under it, written with either the words Belok Kiri Mengikuti Lampu (which means ‘turn left in accordance to the traffic light’) or Belok Kiri Langsung or Belok Kiri Jalan Terus (which means those who wishes to turn left may do so without care for the traffic light). If there are no signs, it is safer to just wait for the green light, less you got in trouble with the police. In bigger junctions, though, there are usually special lane that enables you to turn left before the traffic light, and thus the dedicated lane.
Right, that’s all for today’s post, our transportation part 2, and subsequently the last part of this topic!
See you next topic~
Yorumlar