Pelni (Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia, Indonesian National Lines) is the national shipping company of Indonesia. Its services network spans across Indonesian archipelago. Mainly serving as connector between bigger cities to remote islands, Pelni plays important role in Indonesian transport system.
Pelni is one of the few remaining economy-class long-distance passenger ship operators. Most of the world's well-known passenger ship companies have stopped their low-budget passenger services since 1960s due to shifting trends towards airplane transport. Pelni's ability to survive is mostly due to monopolies on certain routes and subsidized routes funded by Government of Indonesia.
Video Pelni
History
Under the Dutch colonial rule, Indonesian inter-islands transportation was dominated by Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM), founded in 1888. KPM headquarter was in Amsterdam, but daily operations were controlled from Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now jakarta).
As a newly independent republic, in late 1940s Indonesian government decided to nationalize Dutch-owned companies. The Dutch refused to give away KPM, due to its strong position as connector of Indonesian archipelago. KPM also played important role in transporting Dutch logistics and military supplies during Indonesian National Revolution.
In response to Dutch refusal, in September 5, 1950, Indonesia founded PEPUSKA (Yayasan Penguasaan Pusat Kapal-kapal, Centrally-controlled Ships Foundation) that operates 8 ships with total size of 4.800 Deadweight tonnage. However, due to lack of experience and capital, PEPUSKA failed to takeover KPM's monopoly.
In April 28, 1952, PEPUSKA was dissolved. Pelni (now as a company, not a foundation) was founded at the same day, with the same fleet. To bring more power, Indonesian Eximbank provided funding to buy 45 new coaster ships from Western Europe countries, and while waiting these new ships being produced, rented various ships from many countries. Pelni also used ships looted from Japan in World War 2. These strategies proved successful, as KPM suffered from declining market share and strike workers led by Sukarno's leftist doctrine. KPM discontinued its Indonesian operation in December 3, 1957.
Pelni achieved its golden era during early 1980s to late 1990s. Under Suharto presidency with his Transmigration program, Pelni was the main transport to move people from Java and Sumatra to eastern region of Indonesia, because air transport facilities were still underdeveloped.
Pelni started to suffer after 2000s, because airplane services were cheaper year by year. Some of its old ships even failed to sell to third parties, and maintaining these old ships also was not a cheap option. KM Kambuna (now KRI Tanjung Nusanive 973) and KM Rinjani (now KRI Tanjung Fatagar 974) was granted to Indonesian Navy in 2004. KM Kerinci was sold in 2014. KFC Jet Liner was rented to Sri Lanka Navy between 2009 and 2012. As per 2017, no party is interested to buy KM Ganda Dewata (Ro-ro ship) even as a scrap.
Pelni started to reform its services and management since 2012 to this day, by focusing more on tourism and cargo market, alongside improving its current low-budget passenger services. Pelni began to book positive earnings since 2014.
Maps Pelni
Ships and services
Passenger ships
Pelni's passenger ships are also a major branding feature of Pelni: large yellow funnel with red-and-white strips and Pelni logo. Pelni painted its ships with white color on the upper side of ships and crimson on the lower side. It's reddish lifeboats are also easily recognised from distances.
Most of these passenger ships (Excluding KM Egon, KM Ganda Dewata & KFC Jetliner) were built by Meyer Werft, a major German shipyard well-known as luxury passenger ships builder. Due to Wreft's luxury culture, some party considered Pelni's ships 'too good' by Indonesian standard, even after designed & built as economy-class passenger ships by default. Per August 12, 2017, no Werft-built Pelni ship is involved in sinking accident. However, these high-standard ships were not enjoyed by passengers, especially prior to 2014, because harsh treatment by passengers and the crew itself. Most problems usually came from illegal passengers.
Since 2014 onwards, some improvement have been made, especially in ticket reservation system (now booking is available online, but still limited to payment via Bank Rakyat Indonesia's ATM and Indomaret store. Credit card payment is still not possible), toilet repair, and 2-pin electric plug (for mobile devices only). Passengers can enjoy GSM & GPRS network in Pelni ships provided by telkomsel. However, passenger management is still troublesome, mainly because most of Indonesian seaport's passenger terminal (operated by Indonesia Port Corporations) is not sterile from illegal visitors.
Below is a list of Pelni's Passenger Ships. All of these ships (excluding KFC Jetliner) were named after mountains in Indonesia. KM Tatamailau, however, named after Mt. Tatamailau in East Timor. 'KM' is abbreviation of 'Kapal Mesin', meaning Motor Vessel (MV) and 'KFC' is abbreviation of 'Kapal Ferry Cepat', meaning Express Ferry Ship.
Facilities
- One single bed per passenger, but shared space with others and no separator each bed.
- 2-pin electric plugs per bed (low voltage, for mobile phones only)
- Shared bathrooms & toilets with hot & cold water
- Three standard meals a day (queued)
- Hot water for drink
- Musalla
- Cafeteria
- Smoking area
- GSM and GPRS network by Telkomsel
- Clinic
Facilities (KM Kelud only)
KM Kelud (serving Jakarta-Batam-Tanjung Balai Karimun-Medan) is the ship with most complete facilities:
- Restaurant
- Wi-Fi (paid)
- Mini cinema
- Alfamart and Pelnimart store
- Gym
- Live music
KM Kelud also provides first- and 2nd-class service in addition to economy-class services, with double bedroom and four single-bedroom options, with television and better food menus.
However, not all of those facilities are always available. Some passengers wrote that access to some of those, such as mini-cinema and gym were locked by the crew. Also, not all of these facilities are in good conditions, especially the toilets. The ships are also often overcrowded by illegal passengers, especially after embarking from small ports with less security enforcement.
Tourism services
In addition to regular passenger routes, Pelni provides tourism packages to various islands. Pelni introduces live-on-board concept, where Pelni ships will pick up passenger in hub ports (such as Semarang or Sorong), sail to destined tourist attraction, stay there as 'floating hotel' while passengers enjoying the tourism packages in nearby islands, and then return to hub port. For 2017, the tourism packages are:
- Karimunjava Islands (depart from Semarang)
- Raja Ampat Islands (from Sorong)
- Derawan Islands (from Balikpapan)
- Wakatobi National Park (from Bau-Bau)
- Komodo National Park (from Labuan Bajo)
- Banda Neira (from Ambon)
Cargo ships
- KM Caraka Jaya Niaga III-4
- KM Caraka Jaya Niaga III-2
- KM Caraka Jaya Niaga III-32
Other ships
These ships are owned/rented by Government of Indonesia and operated by Pelni:
Tol Laut ships
Tol Laut ('Sea Tollroad') is a maritime program by President Joko Widodo to improve Indonesian logistic system through providing routine and subsidized ship sailing across Indonesia. As of December 31, 2016, Pelni operated six ships for this purpose.
Cattle ship
Pelni operated one cattle ship, KM Camara Nusantara I, to transport cattle produced by farmers in Lesser Sunda Islands to Java.
Pioneer ships
Pioneer ships (kapal perintis) are smaller ships provided and subsidized by government to service remote islands that are commercially not profitable and too shallow for larger ship to disembark. As of December 31, 2016, Pelni operated 46 pioneer ships.
Sailing to foreign countries
Pelni is fully serving Indonesian archipelago and currently doesn't provide regular route to nearby countries, although many of its destinations are located in Indonesian outermost islands such as Batam (near Singapore), Natuna Islands (between Peninsular & East Malaysia), Nunukan Island (Near Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia), Miangas Island (Near Philippines), Jayapura, Merauke (both are close to Papua New Guinea) and Kisar Island (near East Timor).
Incidents and accidents
- On January 27, 1981, Pelni's ship the Tampomas II was burned and sank near Masalembu Islands in the Java Sea while sailing from Port of Tanjung Priok, Jakarta to Makassar. This ship was produced in 1956 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and initially planned to be scrapped, but cancelled and finally sold to Indonesia with alleged marked-up price. Official said that 431 people were killed. Iwan Fals and Ebiet G. Ade created song about the sinking separately.
- On April 6, 2011, KM Fudi rolled over while being repaired in PT. PAL shipyard in Surabaya. Due to lack of cost for re-establishing her, Pelni & PAL decided to abandon the ship and allowed Yala Gada, a cooperative from Indonesian Navy to scrap her on March 15, 2016.
Gallery
References
External links
- Pelni - official site
- Online schedule of all Pelni ships available here
- Travels on Pelni, (PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia) - review of a voyage on KM Kelud by Jonathan Boonzaier in Maritime Matters
- Youtube- Making of KM Lambelu in Meyer Werft
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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