Setijadi, chairman of research and consulting company Supply Chain Indonesia (SCI), said logistics digitalization could improve supply chain management, adding that the infrastructure and supply and distribution imbalance causes prices of goods in the nation's east to be higher than in the west.

Setijadi said the 16 provinces on Java and Sumatra account for around 80% of the nation's gross domestic product, with the other 18 provinces making up the rest.

SCI forecasts Indonesia's logistics sector could be worth 699.1 trillion rupiah ($48.8 billion) this year, based on Statistics Indonesia data from the third quarter of 2021. That would mark an increase of just over 1% versus 2021. Despite the size of the market, Setijadi said the government and industry's logistics digitalization efforts are "still lacking."

"So far, [in some cases] we have seen that [prices of] some commodities have gone up, not because the goods are not available, but because we cannot monitor their locations. In certain areas, there is a shortage. But in other places, there is a surplus," Setijadi said.

"If we can map the system ... we can get accurate data. Then we can process and analyze it. We can anticipate various things with one goal: back to matching supply [and] demand," he added.

Hartono, meanwhile, said Transporta, which aims to become a "tech enabler" rather than a digital logistics company in competition with trucking companies, has so far registered 82 trucks and will continue to partner with GPS providers.

"We focus more on supporting them to grow," Hartono said, warning that they need help to thrive. She doesn't want to see "local businesses in this industry get beaten up by players from outside," referring to foreign logistics companies from the U.S., Europe and Japan.