Why the Parking Man Is Paid When You Leave — Epoche A2
Interviewer: Pak Harjo, you stand on this street in Yogyakarta all day, in an orange vest, with a whistle. What is the job? Pak Harjo: Tukang parkir. Parking man. This row of shops has no car park, so everybody parks along the edge of the road. Somebody must watch the motorbikes and help them leave. That somebody is me. Interviewer: What does it cost? Pak Harjo: Two thousand rupiah for a motorbike, five thousand for a car. Nobody pays when they come. They pay when they go, because the leaving is the work. Interviewer: Why is leaving the hard part? Pak Harjo: Look at the road. The motorbikes never stop coming. A parked bike faces the shop, so the driver must push it backwards into that river. Alone, he waits and waits, and one day he does not wait long enough. So I step out, blow the whistle, and hold up one hand. The traffic slows, the bike rolls out, everybody moves again. Ten seconds. Interviewer: Does everybody pay? Pak Harjo: Some pretend not to see. Most give the coins without thinking, the way they say thank you. Two thousand is small money. Pushing a motorbike into moving traffic with nobody to stop it — that is expensive.