Destinasea

Transportation is a means of travel that is essential for the community, be it for tourist trips, family visits, as well as for business. Blue Bird is a pioneer of land transportation services in Indonesia, it was founded in 1965 as a taxi company. Then in 1972, the Blue Bird Group introduced a taxi fleet with fares based on a metered system. Now, Blue Bird has become a multinational company, trusted by the general public. With various technological advances, Blue Bird can be creative with its solutions and innovation strategies that are both superior and reliable.

Through several generations, Blue Bird has grown rapidly and is currently a public transportation company that can be found throughout the archipelago. The island of Bali as a center of world tourism, has become one of Blue Bird's operational areas, this includes the neighboring island of Lombok. Blue Bird has been in Bali since 1989 with the legal company PT. Golden Bird Bali, a pioneer of land transportation services for local and domestic tourists. Blue Bird's vision as a transportation company that prioritizes quality to ensure sustainable prosperity, has led it on a mission to achieve customer satisfaction and provide high quality services with efficient use of resources.

Blue Bird Bali carries out various creative activities to continue to lead the market in land transportation services. The most important thing is caring for the environment, including controlling plastic waste and reducing carbon footprints. Blue Bird participates in the “no single use plastic” movement which is practiced in all operational aspects. As stated by Panca Wiadnyana as Head of Blue Bird Bali Lombok PT. Golden Bird Bali, “The concept in PT. Golden Bird Bali for plastic waste control activities are elimination, substitution, and management”.

Of the three principles, the aim is to tackle the use of plastic efficiently. All Blue Bird Bali employees and drivers are required to bring reusable drinking water bottles to reduce the waste of single use drinking water bottles. This is shown by the decline in the amount of its plastic waste. Plastic waste which usually reaches 90,000 single-use plastic bottles as waste, has now reduced to 30%. Waste disposal frequency has also been reduced from the usual eight hauls, to only three trucks of garbage per month. As stated by I Nyoman Sudarsana, as General Affair PT. Golden Bird Bali, “We see savings when the use of disposable mineral water bottles is no longer used. At this time we have not spent any money to collect the bottles. Plastic bottle waste has been reduced from eight times to three times. The cost reduction is up to 60%.”

In principle the company, PT. Golden Bird Bali prioritizes all environmental and social aspects in line with the principles of Signing Blue - a marine tourism improvement program initiated by the WWF-Indonesia. PT. Golden Bird Bali joined Signing Blue in December 2020.

Currently, all forms of activities of PT. Golden Bird Bali are based on commitments related to Signing Blue, which includes environmental care programs, cultural customs, education, as well as women empowerment movements carried out annually.

Together with the WWF-Indonesia team, PT. Golden Bird Bali made a movement to tackle the problem of plastic waste at Kuta Market, clean up swamp forests with media partners on the island of Bali, protect springs of Mount Agung, and build separators in rivers to separate river water flows from carrying garbage to sources of water. A collaboration movement with the public was also carried out, namely exchanging waste from the community for goods from partners of PT. Golden Bird Bali. This encourages people to keep the environment clean by collecting their waste and exchanging it for goods. Many collaborators were involved, namely the nearest traditional village to the branch offices of PT. Golden Bird Bali, print and online media, and the girl community of the local village.

PT. Golden Bird Bali managed to get around 5000 volunteers for the swamp forest cleaning activities carried out in 2020. These volunteers consist of drivers, employees, locals, and the Indonesian National Police.

Since 2016, PT. Golden Bird Bali have made Efforts to minimize their carbon footprint, these include using fuel with a higher-octane number and no longer using government subsidized fuel. In December 2020, PT. Golden Bird Bali signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with PT Pertamina to implement the 'Blue for New Life' program, which is a program to use fuel with a higher-octane rating. Efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of PT. Golden Bird Bali does not stop there, in the future it will operate a fleet of electric cars, in accordance with the direction of the Indonesian government.

In addition to efforts to minimize the carbon footprint, PT. Golden Bird Bali is also trying to conserve energy by making an appeal to employees in offices, pools and workshops to use electricity as needed, this is an effort by the management of PT. Golden Bird Bali for energy saving and has been doing it for a long time.

As a commitment of PT. Golden Bird Bali in the socio-economic aspect, food supplies in its canteen are from empowered local entrepreneurs. One of the Women Empowerment programs of PT. Golden Bird Bali is doing the "Kartini Blue" program where the wives of drivers and employees are given sewing machines and taught how to sew for free, they then collaborate with PT. Golden Bird Bali, sewing the Blue Bird uniform.

All employees and drivers of PT. Golden Bird Bali has a legal work contract and has been proven to follow the labor regulations in Indonesia. The driver's working age limit is 23 years and the driver's retirement limit is 58 years. Most of the employees and drivers are Balinese. PT. Golden Bird Bali also supports the Women Empowerment program by accommodating female drivers. Currently there are 12 female drivers on the island of Bali.

Entering the Covid-19 pandemic, PT. Golden Bird Bali made internal improvements in terms of development and preparation for future conditions, namely based on the three pillars of Hygiene (cleanliness), Low Touch (keeping distance), and Tracking. The pre-employment process is carried out by drivers and employees of PT. Golden Bird Bali, they participate in retraining on SOPs and procedures for dealing with the pandemic, namely washing hands, wearing masks, maintaining a distance, and avoiding crowds. PT. Golden Bird Bali regularly checks the check-in and check-out lists for its drivers.

SOPs that have become Fixed Procedures (Protap) related to Hygiene or cleanliness have been created for employees and drivers to comply with current conditions. PT. Golden Bird Bali also invited representatives from the Health Office to provide information related to COVID-19 to all drivers and employees.

Keeping a distance or Low Touch is the second pillar that PT. Golden Bird Bali is enforcing during the pandemic. PT. Golden Bird Bali has implemented non-cash transactions, all transactions in the office, pool, and workshop already use a barcode application so that distances are maintained. PT. Golden Bird Bali strives for customers to make non-cash payments through the MyBlueBird Taxi application.

Blue Bird’s recent innovation, namely Tracking on the MyBlueBird Taxi application, a development in the Global Positioning System (GPS) feature to track taxi fleets. By using this technology, the application will find the closest driver to the customer order through the MyBlueBird Taxi application, this reduces customer waiting time in public areas where there is higher risk of exposure to the Covid-19 virus.

The entire fleet of PT. Golden Bird Bali has proven the cleanliness of its cars. Each taxi unit is required to return to their respective pools every day for the sterilization and disinfection process, which are performed by dedicated officers. Each operating car unit has been equipped with hand sanitizers for customer use, and all office and pool areas are sprayed with disinfectant twice a week. This is a protocol that has been implemented since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

The hope of PT. Golden Bird Bali for the future is the hasty return to normalcy and an increasingly conducive economy, especially in the business and tourism sectors. This is increasingly visible with the rapid development of technology and business between countries. As the best tourism destination in the world today, the island of Bali still ranks first for business development.