Taxi numbers on the increase

Alannah MacTiernan the minister responsible for all things cab related has announced she will be releasing 20 taxis a month each month for the next year in an effort to reduce waiting times at peak demand times.

Does this mean they will be peak period plates ?? That would be preferable from my point of view. If they are going to be full time then I worry about our incomes as weeknights are far quieter than weekend.

She claims the ratio of 1 cab to 1111 persons in Perth is the highest of all the Australian states. Whats that got to do with the price of tea in China? No one I know outside of my job catches cabs. Plenty of people I meet in my job only get 1 or 2 cabs a year. Others are catching cabs several times a day. Maybe our ratio needs to be different based on the way people catch cabs in Perth. A comment on my blog over on blogspot mentions 14,000 cabs for 2 million people where the commenter lives we have 1,500 for 1.5 million maybe the cab prices are more affordable there hence higher instance of taxi travel. He doesn’t mention if the drivers are making enough to live on which I think is the major concern of all cabbies.

The story from TheWest is here

Adelaide... More sex attacks

2 More women have complained of sexual attacks/assaults that have occurred in recent times in Adelaide cabs. The article states there have been 5 attacks now since the start of 2007 following on from 21 attacks in the last 7 months of last year.

I really do feel for the legit honest cabbies that are trying to make a dollar in Adelaide at the moment. This time of year would be one of the busiest for them with the V8 Supercars kicking off their season at the Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide this weekend.

I was driving in Perth when the Claremont murders happened and almost over night our income dropped 50% on what it had been. Women sat in the rear of cabs shoved up against the rear doors trying to remove themselves as much as possible from the cabbie whilst still remaining in the car.

Mothers came outside to take my photograph standing in front of my taxi license plate while holding my Dept of Transport photo ID card. I’d jokingly ask them to email me a copy but I never got one.

Cabbies got DNA swabbed by police to ‘rule them out’ of the investigation.

Of course I realise murder and sex attacks are completely different crimes for one thing the police have a live person to talk to and a description of the person they are looking for which is a big help. But anyway you look at it 26 attacks in 9 months is shocking.

I just hope they catch the drivers responsible.

Here’s something else to think about. It will be the good cabbies, the ones that know where they are going, speak english and are an asset to the industry, it will be those cabbies that will leave because they simply can’t make a living any more if this drags on for too long and they are the very drivers Adelaide needs if they are going to rebuild and regain the trust of the public.