Page 1737 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 6 June 2006
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The problem with pre-booking issue comes about as a result of the majority of cab drivers in the ACT being part of a co-op agreement, rather than being contracted to Canberra Cabs. Therefore, Canberra Cabs does not have the authority to dictate to taxi drivers what jobs they must do. It is a cooperative arrangement. Basically, Canberra Cabs provides a central call centre from which taxi jobs are given out to drivers, but they do not have sufficient authority over taxi drivers to enforce pick-ups when perhaps they should.
As I understand it, Canberra Cabs basically provides a call centre service to a majority of taxi owners in Canberra, but does not employ those taxi drivers directly. Therein lies the rub. While some taxi operators, for example, Silver Service and Elite Taxi Service drivers, are contracted to Canberra Cabs and have an agreement that ensures that they accept jobs, the majority of taxi operators are not employees of, or contracted to, Canberra Cabs.
While there is, from memory, something like an 87 to 90 per cent reliability rate that the mainstream taxi service will pick me up on time, if I want an ironclad agreement that a cab will take me to the airport, I need to book Silver Service or Elite Taxi Service and pay the extra fee. To ensure that I get a cab at 6 am, as the sun peeks up over Isaacs Ridge, I need to pay that extra fee to get me to the airport on time. We need more of our taxi service in this town. We need a broader reach of reliability.
I am advised that if a customer calls Canberra Cabs wanting to order a taxi, that job is called out over the communications system and offered to the drivers. If no driver wishes to accept that job, Canberra Cabs cannot enforce a pick-up and the customer is left without a taxi, unless, of course, they pick up a Silver Service or an Elite Taxi Service taxi run. The problem, really, then is that there is nothing in the government’s legislation that makes it compulsory for any cab driver to collect the passenger. The minimum service standards for taxi services fail to ensure that taxi drivers do not refuse a job if one is offered. This is an issue that the government needs to have a look at.
This leaves taxi passengers in a real predicament. Even if a taxi is pre-booked days in advance, there is no guarantee—in fact, no legal requirement—that a taxi driver will turn up to that job. That is why we are seeing so many complaints from people who have waited in good faith for a taxi to arrive, only to be left high and dry because there is no binding agreement for a taxi driver to come and collect them. How often do we hear about a spouse dug out of bed in emergency fashion to race some poor beast off to the airport? That is why we are seeing so many complaints from people who have relied on those services.
While the issue of additional taxi licences may help to get more taxis on the road, there is still nothing substantial in the legislation that guarantees that this will solve the problem of taxi no-shows. This is what the government needs to address to really solve the problem. Minister Hargreaves has now said he will introduce fines of up to $1,000 a month if Canberra Cabs do not meet the new minimum service standards. In my view the government has failed to recognise that Canberra Cabs is powerless to ensure that cab drivers adhere to the new standards under the co-op arrangement that is currently in place. By this initiative of introducing additional fines and highlighting these standards, is the minister seeking to put more pressure on Canberra taxi companies to lock their
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