Peanuts for Monkeys

The reality of Taxi Income – Less than Minimum Wages

Some drivers may think they are doing well but when you break our income down and compare what we take with a standard wage earners who get benefits and penalties we really are badly off.

To begin with the income potential for drivers is extremely low.  

 If a driver takes $400.00 (that is on a very good week night) in a shift we then have to take a lease fee of $80.00 and fuel costs of about $45.00 out.   That leaves $275.00.  

 From this we must deduct 10% GST leaving $247.50.   

Then if you allow 9% super that is reduced to $225.23.  

Allow the equivalent of holiday and sick leave and you have $198.22.  

Divide that by twelve and you have $16.51 per hour.    That does not take into account that we work twelve hours and should get time and ½ after eight hours (meaning our income is the equivalent of $13.00 if we did get penalties, the equivalent of 14 hours work).   

 There are other incidentals such as income protection insurance which I have not taken into account.  

Now to take $400.00 in a shift we must take $33.33 per hour.   Not as easy as it seems.   Some hours we may take $60.00, others we take nothing.   Many hours we sit for an hour to get a $10.00 fare, particularly after midnight.  

If we don’t wait out for the early morning FIFO traffic we get complaints that there are not sufficient cabs for demand.    Day drivers would find it very hard to take $300.00 with similar costs.  

As a night driver I have taken as little as $170.00 (with twenty years’ experience).   There are only a few periods when we can take $60.00+ an hour (early Saturday evening and from 11.00 pm Sat – 1.00am Sun) as people travel to the suburbs and others come back into town.  

From 2.00 am Sun our fares are all one way from the entertainment precincts to the suburbs with empty return trips (therefore average $35.00 per hour take).   This extra profit is then countered by extra pay-in and fuel costs (approx. $50.00 more than other shifts).

When the income is peanuts the drivers are going to be monkeys.

Taxi Industry In Crisis because of Government Greed

When you next complain about Perth Taxis you need to first stop and think;  
Why are they so bad and who benefits?
The answer is simple.   The worst the supposed inefficiency the more the government can justify the addition of new plates to its own financial benefit.   The more plates the less drivers earn so good drivers have to leave the industry.   The government then has to lower its standards to get more drivers who are then even less capable and efficient.   That means more cab plates need to be released and therefore more bad drivers recruited.  
This is a downward spiral.   Bad drivers mean bad efficiency which means more bad drivers.
The public is ripped off and the good drivers are forced out because of increased competition in numbers not in efficiency.   
The next time you are waiting for half an hour for a cab to arrive at your door it probably isn't because of a shortage of cabs but because the driver allocated your job has been too incompetent to find your location.   Meanwhile there is a good driver sitting around waiting to be allocated a job.  
You are being inconvenienced and he isn't earning any cash whilst some incompetent is off into the wild blue yonder ignoring your job.  
We don't need more Cabs we need better cab drivers and that won't happen when our income is eroded to less than minimum wages because the government wants more income from more plates released.