The Following is an email I sent to every Parliamentarian in WA.
Many have replied some with positive sentiments. Others say they will forward the email to the Minister responsible, Troy Buswell. They missed the point.
The industry needs everyone concerned to express their distress to their relevent representative.
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The Taxi industry is in turmoil. Troy Buswell thinks that he can do a “Yes Minister” and use faked statistics to add 300 more cabs to the industry. He is supported by the richest man in the Taxi Industry. In the near future parliament is being asked to accept his recommendations in a cynical attempt to add to the government coffers at drivers expense.
The problem in our industry is not in the quantity it is the quality. Mr Buswell is using fallacious statistics. If his numbers were correct we would average one radio dispatch job every 108 minutes and as such I can’t see how 220 jobs would afford to be ignored. We should and would be desperate to do any job if the numbers were that low. If 220 jobs are not being picked up it is not because of a shortage of cabs. If 220 jobs are going wanting why do we need 300 full time cars to service them?
On a very good night (other than Saturday) I aspire to taking $400.00. If you take $130 from that for gas (have you seen the gas price lately?) and lease that leaves $270. Then remove GST of $27 and you have $243. If you then take out all the benefits that regular workers receive such as super, holidays, sick days, insurance and you have less than $200. If you allow for time and a half for working 12 hours (8 hours standard and 4 at 1 ½) a regular worker would get the equivalent of 14 hours pay. $200 divided by 14 is $14.28 as our base rate (working nights and if we take $400). I have 2 university degrees and I aspire to $14.28 per hour (how pathetic is that?). Saturday nights we might aspire to $500 – $550 but then the lease fee and gas are higher so the extra isn’t that great. Day drivers would be lucky to take $300 per shift.
I grant you that it can get busy for about 3 hours of the week; 7.00-8.00 pm Saturday and 1.00-3.00 am Sunday although that is not the case every week. The other 165 hours of the week suffers from an oversupply. No other industry increases its staff by 80% (over the past five years) or 15% (to be released) to cover a busy period of 3% of the working week. But then no other industry management is rewarded by creating an oversupply as the Government has and will continue to. The Government and Swan thrives on the purported inefficiency in the Taxi industry.
The other business that profits is Swan whose chief honcho is also the chief honcho of the Taxi Council (no conflict there… of course he endorses the increase ‘reluctantly’). Swan will have an increase in earnings of $1.72 million (more now they have increased rank fees) providing communications services and $1 million providing training (which will be ongoing as people come and go when they realise how poor the income is).
Now considering this real income model where is Mr Buswell going to find 1000 extra drivers?
To get a Taxi license you are supposed to have had a valid driver’s license for more than 3 years. This makes me very suspicious about the “student” drivers. They come from relative poverty so how could they have been licensed for that long. Then of course there is the police check. As an Australian my police check was conducted here. As a “student” it would be done through the embassy of that country. How thorough can a police check be from a country of 1 billion people? As a “student” they are only supposed to work for 20 hours per week during semester. I work 48 hours and I see the same faces right through my shifts. When do they actually study (when I was a student I drove 30 hours I could only study part-time to cope)?
It was once a condition that to enter the Taxi industry one had to have lived in Perth for a year. I don’t know what happened to that convention but at least it meant drivers were familiar with the geography of the city and had a reasonable ability to communicate. Such a condition also meant drivers could be checked for behaviour and driving ability. I think that was a convention rather than a law but it made sense.
I am having to salary share (whilst still working 48 hours) with people who are (As Ms MacTiernan recently said on 720 Drive) ‘entrepreneurial’, meaning ripping off customers and queue jumping other drivers (every short fare they refuse is handed on to another driver who has been waiting almost as long; me… I now take those passengers to the recalcitrant driver, open the door ask them to get in and tell the driver to take where they want to go under threat of report). I am suffering a massively reduced income. The travelling public is subjected to harassment and abuse. The Government and Swan are raking it in.
We have more Taxis per Capita than any other city. We have the lowest fees structure of nay Capital City (although our pay in structure is also lower). We also have the lowest usage structure than Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane due to our lower inner city density and restrictive shopping and liquor licensing hours and as such have lower earnings potential. Many nights I am actively carrying passengers for less than 30% of my working night. I spend much of my night searching for rank space of which there is a dearth with 500 full time cars already released.
If we had real OHS regulations the industry would be shut down overnight. I have been spat at, egged, bottled and kebabbed. I have had to clean urine, faeces and vomit from the car’s interior. I have had a thumb broken and lost a tooth.
I have also been handsomely tipped because I present well, I keep a clean, maintained car and try my best to find the best route for the passenger’s journey. My manner should be the standard not the exception (but I gratefully accept any extra gratuity the passenger wishes to provide).
How can punishing the good (of which there are many) drivers by oversupplying make the industry more productive and safe?
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