Proposals for Canberra taxi industry

Whenever the ACT Government elects to introduce new taxi plates into the ACT, there is uproar from taxi drivers.  They say that there are already enough taxis on the roads.  In some respects they are right in saying this.  During off peak periods in Canberra, you can wait up to 90 minutes before you get another job and it does feel like there are too many taxis on the roads.  I have a couple of proposals to rectify this problem and to make the ACT taxi industry more efficient and profitable for those involved.

The first proposal I would make is to allow for the creation of taxis that are only allowed to operate during peak periods.  This could be done by taking some of the current taxis off the road and making them peak period only taxis or by limiting the licencing of new taxi plates to the peak periods.  These could be a different coloured taxis or have different coloured number plates and they would only be allowed to operate on Friday and Saturday nights and on Monday mornings.  Registration fees for taxis are $10,000 a year, so if you charged $2,500 for registration of a peak period taxi and also reduce insurances and base fees for these taxis, it would make them profitable.

The second proposal I would put forward is to expand the ACT taxi subsidy scheme.  With the ACT taxi subsidy scheme, pensioners and other disadvantaged people are entitled to half price taxi travel in the ACT.  The customer pays half the fare while the Government picks up the other half.  The Government should expand this scheme so that those persons without a driver licence in the ACT are entitled to half price travel.  ACTION Buses are already heavily subsidised, so I don't see why the Government shouldn't subsidise ACT citizens who don't have a drivers licence.  I am no economics expert but this should increase the usage of taxis, particularly during off peak periods and make it more viable.

Another more controversial proposal I would make is to reduce fares during off peak periods.  Again, I am no economics expert, but if you reduce taxi fares by one-third to a half during off-peak periods people would be more inclined to use taxis and while taxis would not make the same amount of money by going between point A and point B, they would be busier and waiting periods between jobs would be reduced.