The Role of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in Supporting Passenger Service Operational Activities of PT PELNI Makassar Branch: Implementation of the 2024 Passenger Service SOP under Normal and Peak-Season (Mudik) Conditions

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-793-4_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Standard Operating Procedure; Passenger Service; Maritime Transport; Peak-Season (Mudik) Surge; Service Quality; Operational Resilience

Abstract

This study examines how the updated passenger service Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of PT PELNI, officially implemented on 2 February 2024, supports passenger service operations at the Makassar Branch, and how that procedure performs when it is placed under extreme operational pressure. Rather than assessing SOP compliance in general terms, the study focuses on the 2024 update and compares its implementation under two contrasting load conditions: ordinary daily operations and the annual Idul Fitri homecoming peak (mudik), one of the largest recurring mobility events in Indonesia. The research is positioned in the specific context of Indonesian archipelagic sea transport, in which PT PELNI operates a multi-port network that includes remote and small-island ports and government-assigned Public Service Obligation (PSO) and pioneer routes, so that a single standardised procedure must be executed across ports with very different levels of facilities, digital connectivity, and staffing. A descriptive qualitative single-case design was used. Data were collected between October 2025 and April 2026 through non-participant observation in two blocks (normal condition and peak condition), semi-structured interviews with six informants involved in passenger service operations, and documentation, including the 2024 SOP document, passenger manifests, and complaint records. Data were analysed through coding by service stage and by load condition, data display in a comparison matrix, and conclusion drawing, with triangulation and member checking. The results show that the 2024 SOP has strengthened procedural consistency, role clarity, and inter-unit coordination, and that procedural fidelity is high in the pre-onboard, onboard, and post-onboard stages under normal load. Under peak load, however, three critical points emerge at which the formal procedure is bridged by improvised, non-codified staff practices: queue and gate control before boarding, capacity-related comfort and complaint handling on board, and crowd flow control during disembarkation. Technical disruption of the digital check-in system and limited surge staffing were the main triggers of deviation. The study argues that in an archipelagic PSO network the effectiveness of standardisation depends less on procedural completeness than on surge capacity, digital system reliability, and codified escalation authority, and it proposes a stage-based framework of conditional standardisation together with a peak-season annex to the existing SOP.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Andi Radhia M. Mappagiling
AU  - M. Hamdy Meydiansyah
AU  - Monica Amanda
AU  - Nur Azizah Tawakkal
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
TI  - The Role of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in Supporting Passenger Service Operational Activities of PT PELNI Makassar Branch: Implementation of the 2024 Passenger Service SOP under Normal and Peak-Season (Mudik) Conditions
BT  - Proceedings of the  International Conference on Advanced Maritime Interconnection (ICAMI 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 110
EP  - 125
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-793-4_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-793-4_10
ID  - Mappagiling2026
ER  -