Welcome to 4BC. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content.

4BC - Fairfax Radio Network

Friday September 3, 2010

What we're talking about

  • Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah, with your permission, I would like to add that I thank you sincerely for acknowledging my success at being a ... more
  • Bella on Preferential voting FIRST PAST THE POST ~ is not as democratic as you may like to think.In a preferential system every registered voters final ... more
  • steve on A few facts on illegal boat people Hey Wendy - I'm an immigrant - I've lived here for 40 years and have learned to ignore people with attitudes like yours but ... more
  • James Weir on A few facts on illegal boat people Wendy, I'm surprised anyone lives in Adelaide. Even the Welsh born redheads are getting out of the place. more
  • Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah. Again in typical Socialist Fashion, you are denying me my right to form an opinion. Mr. and Mrs. Newton ... more
  • Meg on "He's a dog..." I believe that any ordinary person who assaults women would have been charged and jailed not sent to rehab. Has Matthew ... more
  • Wendy on A few facts on illegal boat people Look around..In Adelaide now, you cannot spot an Aussie. Everywhere you look its Chinese/Asians, Indians and Pakistani's. ... more
  • bigfella on "He's a dog..." Hi z,The point is: How the heck would Phil of Springwood know what sort of parents Bert and Patti were to their son? For all ... more
  • z on Bob Brown Lazarus Where is the costings that they demand of everyone else, thier 5 minutes of fame will be up shortley more
  • Shanelle on System failure The whole system is stuffed. I have been apart of it for 10years now and still im confused. Im in a bad place at the moment ... more
  • James Weir on Barnaby Joyce How many Clem 7's would you like in your Super Fund, Barnaby? It lost $1.5B in it's current reporting period. Only Govts can ... more
  • Steve Martin on "He's a dog..." Rebecca Wilson as per normal is just plain out of touch.The hitting of women is wrong but personalising this with "he's a ... more
  • Ronny Of Brighton QLD on Preferential voting MichaelIve just come back from a holiday.That bloke Dean Jaensch Siad that if someone(call Him RONNY) had 40% he said 60% of ... more
  • z on Preferential voting the way it is working at the moment is the first loser joins with 2nd loser and so on untill they beat the winner, so a ... more
  • brisman on Bob Brown The guy is not green he absolutley red through to the core. His environmental visions are shallow and don't serve ... more
  • z on "He's a dog..." bigfella, Phil of Springwood is not talking from so called flippantly expertise, Ivory tower stuff but more from commonsense ... more
  • robert goodchild on Support our Diggers the sticker Idea is great.I would happily part with $20 for one and would like to see the profit go to families who have ... more
  • Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." Hey Bigfella, back again so soon after your mobs magnificent defeat by the Tories, I thought you and the rest of your Left ... more
  • z on "He's a dog..." Hey Phil, why don't you say what you really mean more
  • bigfella on "He's a dog..." Congratulations to Phil of Springwood,We've become accustomed to his astute political and social commentaries based on ... more

The Taxi Industry

Posted by: Michael Smith | 7 May, 2009 - 1:53 PM

You have to wonder why your taxi fare includes a return on investment for a $400,000 taxi plate licence.

What for?

The poor old taxi driver, at the bottom of the heap, gets half the meter fare minus GST.

I understand why the taxi owner needs a significant take - for insurance, repairs, maintenance, the $30K capital cost of the car.

Then there are depot fees, radio fees, public liability fees. I understand that.

I don’t understand why the near monopoly Cabcharge sticks a 10% surcharge on top of taxi licence fees - but that’s another issue.

There’s a market in taxi licence plates. At present they’re around $400 grand. So before you buy a cab, before you pay anything else, to have a cab on the road you need an investment of around $400K. The government is the first beneficiary of that, but once the plates are issued (at whatever tender price they get) then there’s a freely traded market in cab plates. And the net effect is that your cab fare includes an element for the return on the $400 thousand value of the plate.

No one invests that sort of money without some expectation of return on investment. It’s probably around $50K per year out of the cab fares for each cab per year.

And for the life of me I don’t understand why you - the customer - are subsidising that investment.

There’s an arguable case that we would be better off if the government regulated for clean cabs, safe cars, well credentialed drivers and removed the requirement for a return on a ridiculously large investment in the plates.

The nett effect of the current situation is that it’s simply not possible to drive a cab (as a driver, not owner) and make a decent living. I defy anyone to live on about $8 or $9 an hour. Yet that’s what we expect of cabbies.

That’s resulted in an influx of foreign students. Student visas are one of the great rorts of this nation. Privately owned colleges sell education courses - they advertise widely in Asia, the Middle East and in the ethnic press in Sydney Melbourne and Brisbane - for students to sign up.

The guidelines are that students are required to have 9 hours of face to face tuition each week. It’s often theoretical. And they can work - formally - for up to 20 hours a week. Who’s policing that?

The taxi companies are happy - they get drivers willing to drive. As you know, the number of taxi driver licences issued in the past year is double the total for the preceding 3 years. This coincides with an influx of students - the numbers from India alone are staggering, last year Indian students increased from 2,300 to 6,240.

The word is out in the target markets.

We have to ask ourselves this question. Are we happy to import cheap labour? That is effectively what we are doing. The taxi industry is delighted. They get a compliant, easily dismissed labour force that will work cheap. The vested interests in the cab industry, the despatch centres, the plate owners and the unbelievable near monopoly that Cabcharge has with its 10% mark-up on taxi fees - they are all happy.

The poor bugger who’s driving for $8 an hour is not. Nor is the customer who gets in a cab with someone who can barely speak the language. The rate of accidents is on the rise.

How can it be just, that a native Queenslander has to hold a learner’s permit, do 100 hours, hold a licence for 3 years before he or she can sit the cab exam. But there’s no check on the history of a foreign driver who lobs here and produces a foreign drivers’ licence - which is taken on face value. Nor is there any state based system of criminal-history checking in the source country. And who knows how many licences, once issued, are shared fraudulently amongst foreign drivers?

This is the thin edge of a very big wedge. Are we happy to import foreign labour because it’s cheap? Many, many people will say yes - bring it on. But make no mistake; it’s the start of a two class system in this country. Is that the sort of Australia you want to live in?

Blog comments Your Say

  • . Its all about chasing shadows.
    By that I mean latching on to this or that latest, most innovative idea that some self styled money making guru has put out in the hope it’ll go viral and make them a lot of money off the backs of all the headless chickens who will follow them blindly down a blind alley. Its a shame but a truism nonetheless that people will follow where someone they see as an expert leads. Even if they lead them to certain disaster, which is what most of the gurus tend to do to their flocks.
    The trick is to recognize a shadow when you see it!
    www.onlineuniversalwork.com

    davidbaer Saturday 6 February, 2010 - 4:26 PM

  • For the perfect customer service jobs il go to http://www.taxvacancies.com Find the best new perfect career for you when you look and fill out applications online. Dont go door to door looking for a new job. Look for one in the comfort of your own home and apply! Find the best customer service jobs in il when you sign up and search today!

    tax jobs melbourne Tuesday 5 January, 2010 - 5:29 PM

  • If you watched SBS and Jenny Macklin last night (Tue 21st July) you would have seen the scam that is called education for overseas students. The institutions are often on the make and, if anecdotal evidence is worth anything, so are the students. More than 90% of the recent cab drivers in Brisbane are not in the slightest bit interested in becoming hairdressers or chefs etc but truly interested in permanent residency.

    Nick Lindsley Wednesday 22 July, 2009 - 12:32 PM

  • My son got out of a cab on Saturday night, saw that his wallet had falled out of his jeans on to his seat. The cabbie saw it too and sped off. A call to the cab company immediately revealed that they can't do anything about their drivers.Told to ring Monday and complain. They couldnt care less. I was told nothing they can do. The fact that he rang immediately and the time and address he got let off doesnt matter. Apparently they have no way of checking no their cab drivers except for a number of the cab. I think they are not being honest. So they could have a mass murderer driving a cab and they have no way of knowing who is driving their cabs on a Saturday night? yellow cabs - you are just the worst cab company I have ever dealt with!

    Kathy Monday 20 July, 2009 - 9:54 AM

  • i agree with all the comments made here ,having driven a taxi in melb. for over 30 years it is now impossible to make a living out of driving.
    the issue needs to be looked at by the relevant authorities.
    But.......do they want to or even care ?

    andrew Monday 6 July, 2009 - 2:06 PM

  • Im a brisbane aussie cabbie ive been doin it for 5 years(i work southside brisbane)..im sick of the industry , 2 years ago i could make 1000$ a week before tax and gst ao i would at least come out with 750 a week(working 4 shifts wed-sat night) now with the economic downturn plus all the extras off thigs like grog goin up and 3 or 4 rises in cab fares people dont want to go out so im lucky to make 500-600 week before tax and gst.

    Also there is lots more cabs on the road in the last 2 years and lots of indian drivers out there now and we are fighting for the little bit of work thats around..

    To give a example of my earnings wed night would make 250- 300 thursday 250 -300 friday 400-500 saturday 400- 500 (if im lucky)..

    But out of them earnings i would only get 45% because i didnt hit there nightly target ( wed- 360 thur -380 friday/sat 570 , if you hit there targets you recive 50% AND THATS WORKING 12 HOUR SHIFTS..

    But the thing is now loads of cab drivers are in trouble with the tax department because we dont pay our tax and gst because we dont make enough money to live.

    I have only stayed in the industy as long as i have becasue i have children part time and cab driving fits in perfectly for me but that has to come to a end as i will be on the street if i dont find a better paying job..

    shannon Tuesday 30 June, 2009 - 11:01 PM

Post a comment * Mandatory fields