Some fleets in Indonesia are very large, with 3,000-4,000 vehicles, operated by international tobacco companies with huge growing operations in the country.

“ORIX identified Indonesia as a growing market many years ago, due to the growth in international investment,” said John Carter, managing director for ORIX Australia & New Zealand. “ORIX has seen continued growth and development in the auto lease product in Indonesia due to the demands from multinational companies. Indonesia is a lot better place to deal with since the change in government. The problem is infrastructure.”

Purchasing and owning assets historically dominated the fleet acquisition scheme. In addition, there have been long periods of very high vehicle resale values.

Accordingly, the local in-country corporate end user’s perception of the need for leasing has been minimized during these periods. Here again, the larger internationals are the driving force toward the upward trend of leasing over purchasing as they expand their operations and geographic reach. Another trend is for the leasing companies to offer more services. This includes drivers as is offered in other countries such as mainland China.

A challenge that surfaces here, as well as in other nations where vehicles are primarily or totally imported, is the potentially unfavorable exchange rates which can, and sometimes do, have a significant impact and can drive up vehicle costs.

--By Mike Antich