A Hybrid AHP–SAW Model for Evaluating Minimum Fare Equity in Online Transportation: A Multi-City Case Study from Indonesia

The rapid growth of online transportation in Indonesia has raised significant concerns regarding the fairness and transparency of fare structures.Current pricing mechanisms, often reliant on dynamic algorithms, frequently fail to incorporate key socio-economic and operational factors, leading to disparities between fare levels and local economic conditions.This study proposes a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to evaluate and recommend more equitable minimum fares.The model integrates the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to objectively determine criterion weights and the simple additive weighting (SAW) method for robust alternative ranking.Four critical criteria are employed: online transport fare affordability, average travel time, the size of the available fleet, and private vehicle ownership.A case study applying this model was conducted across five major Indonesian cities: Jakarta, Surabaya, Palembang, Bandung, and Medan.The results indicate that Jakarta achieved the highest preference score (0.8661), followed by Surabaya, Palembang, Bandung, and Medan.The analysis identified travel time and fare affordability as the most influential criteria in determining fare equity, whereas private vehicle ownership had a comparatively minor impact.The fare recommendations generated by the model demonstrate a closer alignment with local socio-economic realities than existing fares.These findings provide valuable insights for regulators and service providers, supporting the development of more adaptive, transparent, and equitable fare policies that contribute to sustainable urban mobility.