THE clear message from the regional taxi industry to its head man is: we want to be able to retain the value within our businesses, so we definitely don’t want cheaper fares or cheaper taxi licences.
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NSW Taxi Council chief executive Roy Wakelin-King was in Tamworth yesterday as part of a statewide tour to the six defined regional taxi areas in the state to gauge opinion on a report released last month by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
IPART is seeking to create cheaper fares and also to lower the cost of a taxi licence in country areas.
But Mr Wakelin-King said the report was only seeking to add more cost to taxi operators already burdened by insurance and rising fuel costs.
He said this process, in which IPART has been engaged since 2012, has ignored what the industry had been telling both the NSW government and IPART in that time.
“We are concerned this process seems to be ongoing but doesn’t seem to have any discernible benefit,” Mr Wakelin-King said.
“We’ve been making recommendations (to IPART and government) on improving standards – standards for vehicles, standards for taxi meters, on training – and we haven’t had the take-up yet of those ideas that we’d like.
“The IPART process distracts us from the important discussions.”
Plus, a fare freeze had been put in place by the government in June 2013, “then we just got a CPI (2.5 per cent) in June this year, yet taxi costs have increased by 3 per cent each year, so we’re 6-7 per cent behind the eight-ball”.
IPART’s push to create different price structures depending on the regional area was also causing angst – and was a bad thing, he said.
“I think what the industry is looking for is stability and certainty and, as a general rule, we would support uniformity in pricing between all country areas,” Mr Wakelin-King said.
His members did not support lowering fares.
“We’d like to see fares reflect the cost of owning and operating a taxi and a recognition of the goodwill which has ben built up in taxi businesses right around the state,” he said. “(Plus) it’s unreasonable to ask people to take a significant cut in their (licence) values, having worked the business up.”
Thirty people from across the North West and Hunter region attended yesterday’s meeting at Tamworth Services Club.
It was Mr Wakelin-King’s last AGM for the year, after attending others at Tweed Heads, Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Albury, Bathurst and Young.
Ride-sharing by illegal taxi services had also become a bone of contention across NSW, he said.
There are 7150 taxis in NSW, with 5800 of those in Sydney, he said.
Anyone seeking to comment on the review has until December 5 at www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/Home/Taxi_Survey
