Dear Minister,
About two years I had an on road dispute with a driver of a PPRT who I believe pick up a fare that had been dispatched to me at the Como Hotel on a Tuesday evening (About 7.30). I followed this car to its destination (South Perth, the same I had been given) where I confronted the driver. He claimed the passengers were business associates and not my fare. I didn’t want to make too much of a scene in front of his ‘friends’ so I backed off. The driver also said that he worked for the Department of Transport in the Taxi division.
That car was 8253. I sent an email then asking if this could be true but have received no reply on the matter.
Could you tell me if DoT staff do own Taxi licenses and whether they are members of your policy making team? If this is so is there not a conflict of interest?
Who then determines the hours the PPRT are allowed to operate? When the PPRT were given access to the market from 5.00 am to 9.00 am I thought that was extremely generous and was told by many day drivers how their income had been slashed by that decision.
It was little relief that the access was reduced to alternate days after we applied pressure to your predecessor.
Now you claim there are jobs now being serviced. I can’t imagine when these are or where they are.
If there is a problem with the early morning FIFO traffic why are the PPRT not given access to the market from 4.00 am to 6.00 am when the majority of changeovers occur? I often miss out on work at 4.00 am which is really frustrating since I often wait from 2.00 am to get one of these jobs. I notice that when I have to get my car back at 5.00 is a reasonable increase in demand. I imagine the shortage in meeting this demand drops right off when all the day drivers are on the road at 6.00 am. So why are the PPRT’s needed after this time? Is someone in your department influencing decisions to suit their work pattern (eg start at 5.00 am, take $140.00 without any costs and turn up to DoT at 9.00, nice free earner). Perhaps these people would be better utilised starting at 4.00 am, finishing at 6.00 and going home and getting a hours sleep before turning up to their vital job at the DoT.
Is this a CCC enquiry waiting to happen just like the fees for language passes at Curtain. Does this driver have any influence on the selection process of Taxi drivers?
I would like an answer on this.
Hal 3338
Today I received this reply -
There are owners of PPRT lease plates working within the department. The reply claims that they are not in a position to influence scheduling of PPRT work times but one has to ask why they are not on the road until the period when many day drivers have started their shift and therefore reduced pressure on the taxi services.
My suggestion is that PPRT would be better tolerated by other drivers and of more use if they were scheduled to work from 4.00am - 6.00 am when many drivers are doing changeovers. I have noted that there is an increase in customer demand from about 4.45am particularly in the city. From what I have heard from day drivers they are definitely not needed after 6.00am.
I suspect many PPRT drivers go from driving to their regular day jobs which start at 9.00 am.
I may just be another conspiracy nut...
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