Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

264 SESSION IV
But since July 2005, Ministry of Transportation has
developed The Directorate General of Train which
consists of three directorates: Directorate of Traffic,
Directorate Technique of Facilities, and Directorate
of Safety. Unfortunately, the job descriptions for each
directorate are not presented. These are still under
development.
The management system in The Japan Railway is so
strict. For example, if the drivers are delayed even by
only one minute or miss the sign for the door of cars,
there is punishment or penalties such as: scores, salary
cut, or attend training again.
There was a case that took placed a few months ago about
a family with a 4-year son and a little baby; the father is a
train driver. One day, the wife and the children planned
to go by train; unpredictably, the train was driven by
the father of the family. The 4-year son pursued to go
into the driver’s cab; the mother warned the son but she
cannot hold it out anymore when the son hit the door
frequently and cried hard. Even though the rules do
not allow this, the father gave up and gave permission
to his son to come into his cabin to accompany him
for just three minutes until the next station. The train
management knew that the father broke the rule, so the
father was punished by firing him from the job with
the reason of allowing somebody - even a child - to go
inside the driver’s cab. The management stated this
would have brought danger not only for the child but
also for the other passengers.
The rule state that nobody is allowed inside the driver’s
cab except the driver and the co-driver. The driver’s
cab is a narrow room, if there is anybody else except
the driver, it could disturb the concentration and
movements of the driver. Though driving the train is
not difficult, sometime it could make the driver bored
with the monotonous operating procedures; but the
driver still has to strive for full concentration.
In my opinion, system safety management has to
be applied strictly and that safety should not be
compromised. Thus, the Japan Railway applied the
safety management system strongly.
However, the Japan Railway has to revise the application
of safety management by also understanding the worker
for safety management. If the workers know deeply
about the importance of safety, they will agree with the
application of safety management system tightly. Do
not let the worker think that the safety system just give
them another responsibility, or just another rule that
can be broken. We have to keep the psychology of the
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
worker to not be pressured by the system in order to
avoid fault and accident.
As for the Indonesian Railway, the situation is upside
down if compared with the Japan Railway. There is no
safety management system applied. Safety only means
replacement of broken supplies and maintenance. A
late train or somebody going inside the driver’s cab is
considered alright and there is no action to improve it.
Actually, there is a rule to not allow somebody except
the driver to go inside the driver’s cab; but the drivers
break it for a tip and extra money from the passenger
who go inside their cabin. The Indonesian Railway
has to complete safety management system to avoid
accidents. They should improve the basic rule in order
to provide safety for the passengers and workers and to
make it the first priority right now.
The Indonesia Railway should increase the incentive
and well-being among the drivers. This is a major
issue in Indonesia Railway. The driver will work with
high motivation if they feel secure not only about the
condition in driver cabs but also about their income.
Even though the Japanese Railway has been facilitated
by high standard of safety, this does not mean zero
accident could happen. The awareness of drivers
has been weakened by high standard of protective
devices. They think that if they do something wrong,
the protective devices will take control. That is the
reason why nowadays the Japanese Railway make a
good selection system to choose the driver and has a
minimum standard of requirement for both physically
and mentally to become a train driver. It is also needed
to build a system that could analyze both conditions
physical and mental of the drivers in order to keep their
readiness and concentration.
In addition, the Japanese Railway has to control and
maintain the protective devices, signal, and other
facilities, since applying sophisticated protective devices
will not use properly if there is lack of maintenance.
Good and routine maintenance are the key to secure the
function of every protective device and other facilities.
CONCLUSION
1. Safety risk on driver workstation of the Indonesian
Railway is about unsafe condition. Some of equipments
and tools do not work properly.
2. The Japanese Railway had developed driver cabin to
be safe, ergonomics and comfort already done in 1970-