Melbourne’s taxi service is now so bad; it has become the transport of last resort for most people. As for the wheelchair-bound - and the disabled generally - taxis have become the transport that cannot be relied upon with any confidence. People in wheelchairs are often left stranded, whilst able-bodied customers commandeer most of the Maxi Taxis to take their luggage to the airport! It has meant that many of our disabled fear to venture far from home.
 
While drivers earn a pittance for their long hours, the taxi license plate owners – under government regulation - are raking in millions of dollars for providing a shoddy service.  The taxi industry - in its current form - is not interested in, or capable of meeting the real level of demand for taxi services. Why are we supporting an inefficient, poor quality and costly taxi service regime? How did it get this way, and what can be done to fix it?
 
Taxis are a form of public transport, owned and operated privately. The regulated taxi plate licensing system was put into place many decades ago, in a different economic environment. The number of taxis that could operate was restricted, so that those who had invested in a motor vehicle and equipment could be assured of sufficient patronage and therefore a healthy profit.

If taxi operators did not make a profit from the available patronage, it was feared they would abandon their taxis, and in so doing, the community would be denied a much needed taxi service. But why are taxis in today’s far more established economic context any different from a courier service or a bakery? Why doesn’t the government limit their number? 
 
What should a future deregulated taxi service look like? It would perhaps look like the following. All taxi vehicles would be capable of carrying at least a single wheelchair passenger. Wheelchair-bound customers would not have to ask for a special taxi vehicle: they would have access to the entire fleet of taxis.

Why do we unfairly discriminate by providing two types of taxis, when a single design could serve all passengers? All taxis would also have a specially designed refrigerated compartment so that shopping would not spoil on the way home. Taxi drivers would be uniformed, well trained in all aspects - including wheelchair transport - and certified. Vehicles would be less than eight years old, regularly inspected for cleanliness, and in good working order.

Why hasn’t the taxi industry evolved to provide such a service? The short answer is that the private taxi operators have always privileged profit over service. To be fair, the task of improving quality is not the province of private taxi operators: they are currently failing even to simply maintain the status quo in terms of quality. They have not been capable of improving the industry in the past, and they won't be capable of doing so in future.

The task of carrying out creative evolution and continuous improvement, falls firmly at the feet of government. The form of the taxi industry should always reflect and serve the collective transport needs of those it was intended to serve in our community.  Operators acting for their narrow and immediate commercial self-interest should never be allowed to determine it.
 
A stroke of the legislative pen - albeit a very brave one - can deliver an optimized taxi service: one that caters to a wider patronage and provides a much higher standard of service. The Victorian government can legislate the following. From a set date, all taxis would be required to offer the facilities mentioned earlier, through a prescribed model of taxi vehicle. Any person of good character, who was successfully trained to operate a taxi to the appropriate standard, would be issued with a deregulated taxi plate license. 

Licenses would be granted to all qualified applicants who had the means to purchase the prescribed taxi vehicle. All taxi vehicles would undergo regular inspections for appearance, cleanliness and road worthiness, with penalties imposed on offenders.
 
The current taxi license owners would have their regulated taxi plate licenses annulled, and would be automatically granted derugulated taxi plate licenses. They would be compensated by the Victorian Government for the market value of the regulated taxi plate licenses through a New Taxi Vehicle and Equipment Subsidy Scheme. The Scheme would grant subsidies to existing taxi plate license owners for the purchase of the new prescribed taxi vehicle and equipment, until their allocated license annulment compensation fund was exhausted.

How will the Scheme be funded? The Government could borrow the money. The repayment of the Scheme loan may be funded by an annual Taxi Deregulation Levy struck against all deregulated taxi plate licenses for the next 10 - 15 years. 
 
A deregulated, more efficient, and fairer taxi service would thereby emerge painlessly and fairly. Professor Allen Fels take note.

Christos Iliopoulos 

Melbourne July 2011  

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