Limestone Taxi Crash

scorpio63 said :

Life is not all about earning top dollars and attaining assets…

How very true! There are things like happiness and love, service and devotion that are beyond money.

I’d rather take a little old lady two blocks to bring her groceries home from the shop on a rainy day – and flirt with her and carry the bags up the steps – than make a long cross-city run with a silent businessman with a corporate credit card.

The little old lady pulls out a 50% docket which I have to fill in, and pays in coins scraped from the bottom of her purse, and all told it’s a very time-consuming business, but for a lonely widow, social events are few, and when I see that she has gotten all dolled up in her best dress and a lick of makeup, I lather the compliments on thick. It purely makes my day to see a lady smile.

Or anyone, really.

The businessman heading out to the airport may not care to chat with a cabbie, but he is entitled to a safe, efficient, comfortable ride. In the afternoon, I play Mozart as background music and in the evenings, Chet Baker or Miles Davis.

All up to the passenger, really. If they want to talk, I’ll talk, and some of the best conversations I’ve ever had have been in cabs, often late at night. If they want music, I’ve got all the radio stations, six CD slots and an AUX input for my iPad – or theirs. I love it when someone shares their music with me.

It’s long hours for low pay, but it’s a great job.

What I don’t like about it is late at night, I’ll be sitting on some slow-moving rank for an hour or so and think that I could be doing something better. Like being tucked up in a warm bed.

Or when I get called to a radio booking to find no passenger waiting, because they have jumped into the first gypsy cab that comes along.

Or hearing about cabbies who overcharge their passengers, take “the long way”, refuse to help with the luggage, don’t wash or who insist on playing their own preferred Bollywood hits or Radio Al Qaeda.

Or hearing about foolish schemes to fix the taxi industry from people who have no idea.

My father owned a taxi before the great influx of cabs kicked in around the A.C.T and QBN. Skyring’s reasons for driving taxis reflected my father’s reasons for owning and driving a cab and at the end of the day despite the odd negative person, most experiences were wonderful and fun.

Public servants and/or office workers who have not worked out in the real world do not know what they are talking about or have missed!

Life is not all about earning top dollars and attaining assets working on the same public service material year after year, communicating with the majority of the same people year after year, treading the same carpets in the same building year after year, feeling secure and wrapped in cotton wool not facing financial challenges or worrying about where one’s next meal is coming from or one’s own children’s meal.

By the way, for those who made the flippant remarks asking Skyring why doesnt he/she change jobs. Some people for family or personal reasons are unable to change professions or jobs, particularly if they are carers for family members or have disabilities such as audioprocessing disorders, dyslexia, comprehension and other reading and writing disabilities in addition to many learning disabilities.

For instance, I wanted to drive buses and trucks a few years ago and undertake the MR and HR courses. I have an audioprocessing problem with reversing loads and trailers as do many other people. Tying ropes and loads using a certain procedure would have cost me a great deal of money/fees because of my disability. Studying large volumes of material is a major problemo. Yet my right side of the brain works well for writing. It is the left side to perform certain tasks I have struggled with all of my life.

Some people in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s still needing to house and feed themselves do not have a Year 9, 10, 11 or 12 Certificate to become tertiary qualified. Age is stacked against those who wish to undertake an apprenticeship if in their 50’s and 60’s on many occasions. There are people who need to work in shift work based industries given some or all of the above reasons.

How safe and easy for some of you, secure in your (undoubtedly) highly paid public service careers or secure long term, well paid employment, to make uncaring and rude comments such as “why dont you work somewhere else”?

Every person faces difficulties and sometimes limited choices in their lives regarding employment.

Those who have made such arrogant comments regarding taxi incomes and careers have no idea of people and the Canberra community at large.

Skyring said :

Wily_Bear said :

Skyring, I’m intrigued, if you are ‘almost’ in negative income after a sixty hour week, why do you do it?

It beats working, that’s why.

It’s a job where I’m pretty much my own boss. I can take meal or coffee breaks when I want, in between passengers I can read a book, surf the net, listen to an audiobook while I’m driving empty, go home early – after eight or nine hours. If I feel tired, I can pull over and have a power nap.

The best part is that I feel I’m doing something useful, getting people to flights and meetings, pensioners to the shops or the doctor’s, drunks home safely.

I aim for a smile at the end of the trip, and I usually get one. It’s a job that satisfies me in a way that few others do.

And I get to know Canberra in a way that very few others do. Every day is different, and every passenger is a new adventure.

I’ve had lots of other jobs, and while the pay as a cabbie isn’t great, it beats just about everything else for pleasure and satisfaction.

Very inspiring. Now, tell us about your weirdest fare!

Wily_Bear said :

Skyring, I’m intrigued, if you are ‘almost’ in negative income after a sixty hour week, why do you do it?

It beats working, that’s why.

It’s a job where I’m pretty much my own boss. I can take meal or coffee breaks when I want, in between passengers I can read a book, surf the net, listen to an audiobook while I’m driving empty, go home early – after eight or nine hours. If I feel tired, I can pull over and have a power nap.

The best part is that I feel I’m doing something useful, getting people to flights and meetings, pensioners to the shops or the doctor’s, drunks home safely.

I aim for a smile at the end of the trip, and I usually get one. It’s a job that satisfies me in a way that few others do.

And I get to know Canberra in a way that very few others do. Every day is different, and every passenger is a new adventure.

I’ve had lots of other jobs, and while the pay as a cabbie isn’t great, it beats just about everything else for pleasure and satisfaction.

You need to learn how the taxi industry works, dvaey. Comments like the above just demonstrate, to anybody who knows what’s what, that you are speaking from ignorance.

Well I am speaking as a operator of a hire care service. If you want a taxie, you better make sure it’s an easy trip and if god forbid you want to make it to the airport on time sart walking.

Next time you’re out and about just take a look at taxis. You’ll see a lot of them waiting idle on ranks, or driving about with nobody in the passenger seat. That’s most of the time in fact – the cabbie is making no money at all. Sometimes I’ll look at the job screen and see it’s been an hour or two of running empty.

This could be because most cabs will not even go to the airport for the fear they will have to wait for a fair. I sympathise with people who drive cabs with the belief they will make a living, On time and driver competence through out your fleet wil never make this possible.

All cab charges are set by the government, and very roughly they work out to a flagfall of $4.70, $2.00 a kilometre, and a dollar a minute waiting (such as at traffic lights). So yeah, a four block cab ride will cost you about ten bucks. And that’s the sort of fare cabbies dream of – if we can string a lot of them together all day long.

Try $2.20 per kilometre and a driver with a vehicle that is clean and tidy and the driver speaks english.

But it doesn’t work out that way. A ten dollar fare (of which half is given to the cab owner for him to pay his own hefty expenses) and then back on the rank for another half hour or so. We’ve got to pay GST and income tax off the top, and there’s no such thing as paid holidays or sick leave in the taxi industry. No employer to add anything into super, neither.

Taxi drivers live for $10 each way fares. If only it was that easy.

Five years ago, I was making good money as a cabbie. Three years ago, barely breaking even. Nowadays, well, I could just about answer the census questions on work with 60+ hours per week and negative income. Almost.

Well the kettle.

And then I see the flip comments from people who have no idea. More taxi licences. Part time cabs. Total deregulation. Yeah. Any further moves in that direction and we’ll be getting more cabbies who haven’t a clue, can’t keep a clean cab, wear trackie dacks and wash once a week, rip off their passengers and steal work from other drivers.

Feel free to call me on 629 4741 if you want to where you want on time and with a driver and a vehicle that doesn’t remind you of your last trip to Dehli.

BTW We pay $2815 per vehicle because Canberra Cabs keep bending their vehicles.

FD10 said :

If you don’t like the pay, get another job.

There’s more to life and work than money. I’d rather be a cabbie on low pay than return to being a public service computer programmer.

However, there are those who drive for a living and the result of steady decline in earnings is that the more mature and experienced drivers, the sort who know the most efficient ways to get places, the sort who have mortgages and families, are getting out and doing other jobs, leaving the taxi trade to young immigrants, often students working part time.

Skyring said :

There’s no money in the taxi game any more. Not unless you are the government, the taxi company. Cabcharge…

well then taxi drivers must be pretty stupid to be working for substandard pay. imo if they couldn’t get drivers at all, then we would know how crap the pay really is.

Skyring, I’m intrigued, if you are ‘almost’ in negative income after a sixty hour week, why do you do it? If what you claim is true, you might be better off spending a day or two washing windows at traffic lights each week. Alternatively, you are welcome to come and do some laboring around my place, and I’ll pay you moderately above a negative income for say, a 20 hour week.Win-win situation

Seeing as we have a few cabbies on here having a say, what do you guys think of the system they run in NZ?

FD10 said :

Doesn’t take an ‘armchair expert’ to figure that out, although I’m going to guess that no one here will have a valid opinion unless they’re in the ‘(cab) driver’s seat’, so to speak.

Of course you can have an opinion. But it won’t be a valid opinion if you have no idea what you are talking about. Arguments based on ignorant assumptions are fruitless really.

There are none so blind as those who can’t see.

If you don’t like the pay, get another job. If you don’t want to get another job, then stop complaining. Doesn’t take an ‘armchair expert’ to figure that out, although I’m going to guess that no one here will have a valid opinion unless they’re in the ‘(cab) driver’s seat’, so to speak.

Didn’t know there were any govt agencies had any interest in whether sole traders/ business owners income was less than the minimum wage. Please point me to one. I’ll be there on Monday.

Another armchair expert.

Henry82 said :

If its below the minimum wage then government agencies would be all over it.

No such thing as a wage in the taxi industry, let alone a minimum one. Cabbies work as “bailees”, meaning self-employed with their own ABN, and we rent the cab from the owner, who takes half what’s on the meter. And has his own fees to pay the government, the taxi company, Cabcharge etc, not to mention the cost of gas, maintenance, insurance and depreciation.

There’s no money in the taxi game any more. Not unless you are the government, the taxi company. Cabcharge…

dvaey said :

You charge how much per kilometer, then how much per hour, then how much for the flagfall or other various fees you add, and you only claim to make $9 an hour? I caught a cab the other day (albeit in Melbourne) and for my 4 block journey, it cost nearly $10. Anyone who can charge what you guys charge, and yet still claim to be poor, really needs to look at your business model.

You need to learn how the taxi industry works, dvaey. Comments like the above just demonstrate, to anybody who knows what’s what, that you are speaking from ignorance.

Next time you’re out and about just take a look at taxis. You’ll see a lot of them waiting idle on ranks, or driving about with nobody in the passenger seat. That’s most of the time in fact – the cabbie is making no money at all. Sometimes I’ll look at the job screen and see it’s been an hour or two of running empty.

All cab charges are set by the government, and very roughly they work out to a flagfall of $4.70, $2.00 a kilometre, and a dollar a minute waiting (such as at traffic lights). So yeah, a four block cab ride will cost you about ten bucks. And that’s the sort of fare cabbies dream of – if we can string a lot of them together all day long.

But it doesn’t work out that way. A ten dollar fare (of which half is given to the cab owner for him to pay his own hefty expenses) and then back on the rank for another half hour or so. We’ve got to pay GST and income tax off the top, and there’s no such thing as paid holidays or sick leave in the taxi industry. No employer to add anything into super, neither.

Five years ago, I was making good money as a cabbie. Three years ago, barely breaking even. Nowadays, well, I could just about answer the census questions on work with 60+ hours per week and negative income. Almost.

And then I see the flip comments from people who have no idea. More taxi licences. Part time cabs. Total deregulation. Yeah. Any further moves in that direction and we’ll be getting more cabbies who haven’t a clue, can’t keep a clean cab, wear trackie dacks and wash once a week, rip off their passengers and steal work from other drivers.

I call BS on the “get paid less than everyone else” story. If its below the minimum wage then government agencies would be all over it. Plus, there are heaps of taxis around canberra, almost all owned by one company, and all running cabcharge – who take their huge cut. If it wasn’t financially viable to run taxi’s, then they wouldn’t do it.

No sympathy here.

dvaey said :

Devil_n_Disquiz said :

Yes, you are absolutely right. I go out there everyday for $9 an hour average (less now because of the extra cabs put on recently) just to rip you off and risk your life.

You charge how much per kilometer, then how much per hour, then how much for the flagfall or other various fees you add, and you only claim to make $9 an hour? I caught a cab the other day (albeit in Melbourne) and for my 4 block journey, it cost nearly $10. Anyone who can charge what you guys charge, and yet still claim to be poor, really needs to look at your business model.

“I”, personally, don’t set the rates, fares, flagfalls etc. Your local govt does this. Its not my business model either. The govt made their own models based on a PWC investigation.

If you are interested in a slightly more elaborate answer have a gander at this.

http://devil-n-disquiz.livejournal.com/13019.html

But if you don’t believe me, you are quite welcome to get a cab yourself and show me how its done.

I’m always interested in how to improve the taxi industry, and my level of income. But armchair experts who profess to think its easy to make a buck in Canberra should back themselves and show us, obviously dumb, drivers how its done.

Devil_n_Disquiz said :

Yes, you are absolutely right. I go out there everyday for $9 an hour average (less now because of the extra cabs put on recently) just to rip you off and risk your life.

You charge how much per kilometer, then how much per hour, then how much for the flagfall or other various fees you add, and you only claim to make $9 an hour? I caught a cab the other day (albeit in Melbourne) and for my 4 block journey, it cost nearly $10. Anyone who can charge what you guys charge, and yet still claim to be poor, really needs to look at your business model.

Yeah, what’s the point? A taxi was in a crash? No details given but somehow implied the cabbie was to blame.

My experience is the reverse – cabbies do a lot more driving and are more likely to avoid or handle road situations safely.

And if a cabbie tries to rip you off, pull out your mobile phone, film the exchange and contact the cops with as many details as you can get. I would purely love to see the ones who do the wrong thing get hauled over the coals, and either suspended or reformed.

As a cabdriver, I’ve been in a few bingles: kangaroos, people not looking where they were going or running red lights. I NEVER charge the passenger. The ride stops, I whistle up another cab for my passengers and remain to deal with the cops and the towtruck.

Except for one of the kangaroo incidents. It wiped out my front bumper, my headlight alignment and itself, but the car was still drivable. I paused the meter while I assessed the damage – it was about two in the morning and my boozey passengers thought it was a great joke while I swore and stuffed my bumper into the boot – and then dropped them safely home before limping back to base. Six months later I picked up the same pair of drunks and they remembered me. Hey, you’re the cabbie who hit that kangaroo, Bwahahahahah!

Yeah, thanks guys!

I think this is a good example of how you see the world shaping how you see the world.

Yes, you are absolutely right. I go out there everyday for $9 an hour average (less now because of the extra cabs put on recently) just to rip you off and risk your life. Haven’t been called a swindling bastard before though. But thanks, shall I wear the badge with honour ??

But anyway, I digress. What exactly was the point you were raising here ?? That a taxi had an accident ?? Big friggin deal. How many accidents are there on a daily basis in Canberra ? And you witnessed one of the rare ones that involved a taxi. Congratulations.

I think your name says it all. You are a goose.