Ride-Hailing Drivers, 92 Percent, and the Illusion of Welfare
The issuance of Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 27 of 2026 on the protection of online transportation workers has immediately captured public attention. The cap on platform commissions at a maximum of 8 percent—meaning drivers receive at least 92 percent of their earnings—appears to be a significant correction to past practices often seen as burdensome. The fact that this policy was announced on International Workers’ Day further reinforces its symbolic weight as a statement of state support for labor. Yet, in the platform economy, numbers never stand alone. They are always intertwined with other variables: base fares, incentives, order-distribution algorithms, and the broader business strategies of platform companies. Reducing the issue to a simple equation—“lower commission equals higher income”—risks being misleading. For many drivers, the core concern has never been solely the size of the commission cut, but the uncertainty of income. Fluctuating fares, shifting bonus schemes...