2026 Theses Master's

From Shelters to Social Infrastructure: Everyday Practices of Online Motorcycle Ride-Hailing Drivers (Ojol) in Jakarta

Ulfa, Kania Atthaya

Online motorcycle ride-hailing services (ojek online or ojol) have become a defining feature of Indonesia’s urban transportation landscape, particularly in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area. Ojol has become a dominant mode for short-distance and first- and last-mile trips across the city, yet the spatial and social conditions sustaining this mobility system remain insufficiently examined within urban planning scholarship. This study examines ojol drivers’ everyday practices in navigating Jakarta’s urban mobility system, particularly in relation to infrastructure such as station-adjacent shelters and informal community networks. Drawing on field observations at shelters in Central Jakarta and semi-structured interviews with ojol drivers, this research presents a case study of drivers’ spatial practices, social relations, and everyday experiences within platform-based urban mobility.

The study finds that station-adjacent shelters dedicated to ojol drivers, often emerging through collaborations between platform companies and public transportation agencies, function not only as organized pick-up points but also as hybrid spaces actively reinterpreted and reproduced through drivers’ everyday use. Beyond these shelters, drivers rely on informal community networks that provide support, coordination, and the exchange of information, particularly in response to uncertainty and occupational risks within platform-based work. Ojol drivers also develop everyday tactics to navigate fluctuating demand, environmental exposure, and operational constraints across both physical and digital spaces.

This study argues that platform-based ride-hailing systems depend on forms of everyday and social infrastructure largely produced and maintained by drivers themselves, yet inadequately acknowledged within formal planning frameworks. The findings further demonstrate how platform urbanism in Jakarta reorganizes and incorporates informality into new hybrid spatial arrangements linking mobility infrastructure, digital platforms, and informal labor practices. By foregrounding the lived experiences of ojol drivers, this research highlights the need for urban planning approaches that move beyond mobility efficiency alone and instead account for waiting, risk, rest, and the everyday conditions of platform-based labor in shaping contemporary urban mobility systems.