Taxi drivers demand 50% fare increase

I can see an ‘on-the-record’ wage of $9/hour being a possbility, but I was under the impression that Taxi driving was one of the only services that it is Australian custom to tip for, I guess if they want to convert their tips into a taxable income that’s fine with me.

If first year economics taught me anything it is that it is naieve(sp?) to think that just because you charge more for a service means that you will make more money then before.

If cabbies are claiming that they can’t make a living and they drive LPG falcons, why do the suit wearing drivers with petrol guzzling Holden Statesmans offer lower prices (for longer trips) and better value for any trip?

Taxi Drivers should be paid Action Bus Driver wages.

Yeh I forgot, this was one of the other points bought up by the “2CC cabbie”. He reckoned ACTION bus drivers were paid $26/hr.

If the $ comes out of my pocket I care. When I use my work supplied cabcharge, my employer and I don’t care (trust me, my employer doesn’t worry).

So maybe a increase on cabcharge style tickets would be warranted, given the huge amount of work usage in this town?

That would cover a great deal of their requested increses, whilst keeping us punters who enjoy a night out with similar fare to get home??

Just a thought….

Taxi Drivers should be paid Action Bus Driver wages.

So, crappy service and poor driving = stupid increase in fare?

There was a cabbie that rang 2CC talkback today and was giving his justification for the price rise. He was comparing prices of all sorts of things from LPG to builders to groceries to houses all going up dramatically in the last few years and how the cab fares have barely increased in this time.

He also said that an average cab driver is lucky to average $9/hr for a +50hour week so therefore are struggling to make a living.

He reckons that he has to go halves with the cab owner on fares and then take John Howard’s cut (GST) out of their half (he didn’t mention income tax but I guess that would have to be deducted as well).

He also said that sometimes in peak periods there are as little as 1/3 of the cab fleet on the road because there aren’t enough drivers so if you give them a 50% fare increase it will encourage more people to take up driving cabs for a job.

The cabbie also seemed to infer that most of Canberra people were public servants with high paid jobs and if they could afford to go out clubbing or for dinner in Civic then they could easily afford such a cab fare increase.

I’d be curious to know what you’d charge to drive somebody to Ngunnawal from the airport. Remember to factor in your time to drive to the airport for the pickup, waiting in the queue, driving you to Liverpool South, then coming back into Belconnen (more likely the city) to get another fare, petrol for all of the above, insurance, rego, taxi license, owner’s cut, maintenance…

I don’t know what’s worse – that you’re such a bunch of tightarses, or that you expect others to slave for what you’d expect to be paid much more handsomely to do, if it ever came to that. Knuckle-dragging fucktards.

Too true Hingo,
watch the drink driving increase!
BTW…Canberra Airport to my office in Fyshwick, in zero traffic, ..$16 !! Nice $160 p/h !

Why the hell do we have to have so many rules and regulations in this country just free the bloody place up and we can get on with it.

Aha Competition……….Don’t cha love it ! (Back in Box)

Has LPG just increased 50% overnight? These guys are paid by the KM FFS. I paid just over $40 to get from the CBD to Fisher last night.

Time for deregulation.

In Singapore the other day for 100 sing cash I had my driver on standby all evening from about 9pm till 3am driving me and a couple of friends all over town and waiting outside the pubs to take us to the next pub when ever we were ready.
Singapore airport to the City roughly equivalent to Canberra airport to Belconnen I guess costs less the 10 aussie on average. And I have a choice of probably more then 10 cab companies ( just a guess I havnt counted)

Just piss this silly monopoly off and get rid of the restrictive license laws. Maybe have a one license which is a 1st class service like london black cabs and then just have a free for all like london mini cabs.

Maybe those wooden bead seat covers are imported from some exotic location and held together by diamond thread.

Deregulate these parasites.

Hey, they need the extra money so they can afford to buy soap, deodorant and breath freshener!

What a joke. Canberra Taxi fares are already overpriced. I’d like to see then justify the costs involved that already enable them to charge me $50 to get me from Civic to Ngunnawal. I understand that the nature of Canberra’s sattellite city layout doesn’t work in their favour, but $50 in Sydney could almost get you across the entire city. I hope they realise that people are going to rather drive home drunk after a night out and save themselves a small fortune.

For that price, I’d expect them to open my door and provide champagne on the way home.