RSS feedI don’t want to sound like I’m picking on Canberra at all, but I just happen to be spending a bit of time there in recent months, so it tends to be a big source of material.
This time it is back to cabs/taxis. Standing at the airport taxi rant, I’m asked if I mind someone else sharing.
Official cab rant guy: Would you mind sharing with someone else?
RBF: Not at all. So long as they get out at the same place I do.
I had an amusing, if not frustrating situation about 15 years ago when getting a cab back from Sydney airport. I was in the cab, and had some woman pushed in beside me by the official cab rank guy. I didn’t know the law, and she said she’d split the $50 fare, so who was I to complain? 10pm at night after a week away, I was just happy to get home.
That was of course until the cabby decided that she’d be the best to drop off first, then when we pulled into her street it must have have been about ten suburbs away from where I lived, and then the damn cabby gets pulled over by the police half way to my place, and I’m told that the cab was unregistered and wasn’t going anywhere. Another cab and another fare later, and I swore never to share a cab again.
Anyway, back to Canberra airport earlier this week. Although the company pays, I try to do my part to ease the load. 50% of the fare I figured would be a good saving, even though I’d have a stranger to deal with for the subsequent 15 minute cab ride.
Then as we get close to our stop, the following exchange happens:
Cabby: So are you both familiar with the new taxi sharing rules?
RBF: Err, no.
Silent stranger: No.
Cabby: Between 8am and 10am, we have ten times more passengers than taxis, so we have a new system to help people who find it hard to get a cab.
RBF: Uhuh. [ pause ] And what’s that then?
Cabby: Well, we now have a new rate, rate 3, the sharing rate. Rate 3 is 70% of the standard rate, so the trip costs less, but you both pay the amount on the meter. That way I get more, you pay less, and everyone is happy.
RBF: Happy that our discount has gone from 50% to 30% off the standard rate?
Cabby: No, you only end up paying 70% of the standard fare. It’s all up there on the sticker. [ he points to yet another sticker on the windscreen which seemly explains the cab share process ]
RBF: So let me get this straight, for the privilege of sharing a cab with a complete stranger, arguably the reason why I would probably have caught a bus instead if it didn’t frustrate me too much, I can pay an additional 40% more than I would have had I used the old sharing system, and not had the added emotional weight of knowing that you’re also getting 40% more out of the ride than you would for a single passenger. Sounds like a bloody rip off to me, as me and Mr. silent here are now in a lose lose situation.
Cabby: Are you from Sydney?
Anyway, silent stranger guy didn’t get out at the same place as I did, so the official cab rank guy is now the official cab rank bastard guy, and that’s probably the last cab I’ll share for a while.
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The secret to sharing or multi-hire is that you always make sure your the first one out, that way the taxi goes direct to your drop off point and you get the full discount. Here in Queensland it is 25% of the normal rate. Our rank supervisors are trained to make sure that first in is first out. Rank supervisors need to make sure that when multi hiring that the other people going are going close to the same destination and not take people on a Cooks tour as happened to you in Sydney. When done correctly everybody does win and remember if your first in line it’s your cab, you don’t have to share it.
Hey Marty, thanks for dropping by. Unfortunately though, you’re not getting my point. Taxi sharing used to mean sharing both the cab and the bill, meaning you only payed 50% of the fare, or divided by however many people you could fit in the cab. Actually, that’s how I’ll do it next time I share, we’ll say that we’re in the same party, so we collectively pay the full fare, which we split to make 50% each, thus saving 20% of the full fare. Nice.
But I do like the term “Cook’s tour”. Amusing. 🙂
Are there any examples of Taxi-bus systems where you can hail the taxi-bus (something like a 10 seater mini-bus) from any designated place and not just the airport?
Sorry Roland, I have no idea. I suggest you try the yellow pages. http://www.yellowpages.com.au
had an interesting taxi sharing experience in Canberra too. i was exhausted at the end of a long day and just wanted to get home from the airport ASAP, and was dreading the prospect of waiting in the long queue (because 3 flights had come in at around the same time)…lo and behold, someone at the front was going to the same suburb, and i got to skip about 10 spots or so and got into the taxi…
the story doesn’t end there of course…the person who was kind enough to share his taxi got to go home first, and paid his fare, and then i got to my stop (luckily only a couple of streets away) and paid my fare, but i really had no idea how the rate was worked out.
i totally agree that the rates are very favourable for the driver and i was quite surprised by that since i thought it should have been pro-rated, but then again, it’s a free market, supply and demand etc. the decision between waiting for my own taxi vs sharing wasn’t that hard to decide… even though the driver made a tidy profit on that one trip…i still reckon it’s a win-win situation…not forgetting the environmentally positive impact from the reduced fossil fuel usage.
Hi,
So glad that I am not the only one who is equally as perplexed as possible as with that cab sharing system in Canberra. I was there last week for a conference and 3 of us shared a cab as no landing was permissable earlier for any plane that morning due to fog and there was a backload of people. Only too glad about splitting the fare into three, was too shocked later that the other lady who got off at the same stop as moi had to pay the same fare of 17.55 as the lady who got off first, which was fortunately a couple of streets down. When we asked at the hotel reception, we then knew that we have been ‘ripped’. Not very impressed with this capital city now. Bad name for the country, heh?
Interesting comment on “its a free market” It is not a free market in Canberra. We have one cab company only. Many of the Cabbies and EVERY Canberra citizen is unhappy with the local cab company Aerial Taxis. They paint the cabs deifferent and advertise different numbers but they all operate from the same pool of cabs. They have also started buying up the local hire car company fleet and introced a ridiculous voice operated system which does not work. It can’t even recognise me saying Civic or Canberra City so I have to say a nearby suburb. It is causing the cabbies to have a lot of wrong bookings and they don’t like it. If they had competition in this market they would either change the system or lose market share. They would also lose a lot of cab owners too. People are sharing cabs in Canberra as there are never enough. I shared a cab with 3 other people from one of our shopping centres after waiting more than 30 mins at a rank. Not a rush time at all. I will REFUSE to pay the extra they want to charge for sharing.
Sorry to all the visitors to Canberra, having this bad experience. Obviously we have to deal with it constantly.
BTW this is not the only monopoly in Canberra…the only two commercial FM Radio licences are owned by competing networks, however are operating as the same business in Canberra in what is effect a collusion to share the market. Yet nothing is done about it, they have ben doing it for a decade.
Never again will I share a taxi in Canberra. I thought I would do the right thing as he cue at the airport was very long. I stipulated I was the first to be dropped off. No problem says the taxi rank guy. 4 other people got in my taxi. Once in the taxi the taxi driver asked everyone where they were going. I said my address and drop me off first. Did that happen I hear you ask?? NO it didnt. When we arrived at my destination (usually a $25 trip), I was asked for $35. An argument then ensued. I refused to pay anymore of than $25. The final statement from the taxi driver was “Interesting and I know where you live”. Roughly the taxi got over $100 for a single trip. NEVER EVER AGAIN WILL I SHARE WITH STRANGERS.
> need info regarding transferring drivers licence (taxi)from ACT to Queensland, will i have to start from scratch?
better for the driver to leave one of you behind & make 2 trips. If you share you wait less, do the math. half the time your boss is paying anyway, save him some money.
There’s absolutely no incentive for a cabbie to split the fare 50/50 between two passengers, especially when there are many passengers waiting on the airport rank and few cabs available. So the multiple hiring system is a shared incentive:
1. Each passenger pays a reduced fare. It’s normally about $17.00 from the airport to the city centre, so if you are paying a two-thirds rate, that’s a saving of about $5.00. Buy yourself a beer.
2. The second and subsequent passengers not only get a reduced rate, they get to jump several positions on the taxi queue. That can save a lot of time at rush hours.
3. The cabbie gets a bonus, so there is an incentive for him to service the airport or other busy ranks.
Having said that, it’s not unknown for a cabbie to rip off passengers. Get him to explain the system, check that he has the meter on rate 3 (or rate 4 after hours/weekends/holidays), and make sure he drops off passengers efficiently. If not, make a note of the taxi number, get as many details as you can and submit a written complaint. Trust me, the fleet manager will investigate it thoroughly, haul the cabbie in and impose a suitable punishment, up to and including turning the matter over to the police. Internal punishments can include fines and suspensions. Serious cases will involve dismissal from the network.
Skyring, You are spot on. Well done. The only comment here that has made any sense.
As a Cabbie in Canberra I can tell you that the ‘multi hire’ technique works well and is a win win for everyone.
Yes,,first person in the cab (one who agreed to share) gets dropped off first. If the driver doesn’t do this (unless by arrangment among fellow pax) then he is doing the wrong thing.
RBF, if you were right down the back of the queue of 150 pax waiting for cabs, and someone was going to the city and you wanted to go to ANU. Would you rather share and pay only 75% of what you would have paid. Or pay the 100% and wait another hour or so ??
Taxi drivers do it tough here in Canberra, we don’t get that many multi hires. I have worked for 3 years in cabs and have had about a handful of them. But when we do get them its like a bonus for us. Would you turn down a bonus from your boss ?? Didn’t think so.
Skyring, You are spot on. Well done. The only comment here that has made any sense.
As a Cabbie in Canberra I can tell you that the ‘multi hire’ technique works well and is a win win for everyone.
Yes,,first person in the cab (one who agreed to share) gets dropped off first. If the driver doesn’t do this (unless by arrangment among fellow pax) then he is doing the wrong thing.
RBF, if you were right down the back of the queue of 150 pax waiting for cabs, and someone was going to the city and you wanted to go to ANU. Would you rather share and pay only 75% of what you would have paid. Or pay the 100% and wait another hour or so ??
Taxi drivers do it tough here in Canberra, we don’t get that many multi hires. I have worked for 3 years in cabs and have had about a handful of them. But when we do get them its like a bonus for us. Would you turn down a bonus from your boss ?? Didn’t think so.
richard bf i just read your coment about share riding in canberra share riding is the fairest method i know of sharing a cab there are no arguments about who splits the bill if your going say 10kms further on you definately are on a winner so stop whinging and get on with your life
Sorry guys, but I think the “share” system by canberra cabs is disgusting. To use the ANU/City example – if I was at the airport and wanted to go to ANU and shared with someone to the city, then I’d privately arrange with the other person to pay 50% of their city fee, then I’d get the cabbie to RESET the meter after dropping them off and I’d pay the fee from City to ANU.
There is no way the Cabbie deserves the extra % just for picking 2 people up, the kindness of the first person to allow another passenger is the only thing that should be repaid.
Poor taxi driver
Don’t pick on the poor taxi drivers.
I know it can be expensive to catch a cab. But it is not the driver who is making all the money. At the end of the shift the driver takes his cut, but then has to pay 10% GST. For example, from Monday to Wednesday night you might end up with around $16 per hour for working to 3am. The driver does not get paid hoildays, 17.5% loading or any superannualation. They also have to pay income tax as well.
The winner is the Government. The charge $320,000 for the plates, $7,100 per year for rego (yes, what a reap off), fees to the base and many other costs before the cab gets on the road. If the government want to help the customers they would reduce their costs so the fares could be reduced.
It is not fair to think a driver should earn $12 a hour.
B
Tonight we got to share with a trainee taxi driver. The three of us (large guys) got told by the driver that we would be “nice and warm” in the back while the trainee got to sit comfortably in the front. We of course got to pay 100 percent of the cab fare to train this new driver…. Canberra cabs are a complete rip off.
Last night I had the misfortune to share a cab (for the first and last time) from Canberra airport. The driver called out to the queue for people to go to >southside I told him I was going to Wanniassa and my collegue was going to Kambah – sounded good so in we got with two others. The first ride went to the far side of Duffy – hardly southside! and then we returned to Kambah and on to Wanniassa (the long way – as he didn’ turn his GPS on – thank goodness the other passenger knew my suburb better then me and provided directions)To finish up the first passenger paid around $23, my colleague to Kambah paid $59 and I paid $73. Goodness knows the fee for the poor last soul going on to Bonython!. If we assume it is at least $85 for her that means that the taxi reaped $245 for that trip and it took me an hour and a quarter to get from the airport to Wanniassa. Noone sensible would consider Duffy, Bonython and Wanniasssa to be in the same zone. Never again – it is cheaper to leave the car at the airport.
Jo,,you got ripped off by one of the weasels who drive cabs. Unfortunate and I am sorry that it happened to you. But just remember, not all of us are dishonest. I certainly would not have multi hired that trip.
IAN – Next time you train someone in your job. Make sure you ask your boss that you only require a portion of the wages you would normally get. You are training someone and effectively not working as much as you would normally.
You are a grade 1 idiot !!
How else do you think taxi drivers are trained you fool.
DnD, thanks.. I find the vast majority of cabbies great. ps. After my experience I called the cab company, spoke to the manager and was promised a $30 reimbusement – pity it never arrived.
multi hiring or multi sharing is a very simple process.basically it means taking more customers going in allmost same direction in peak hours,like when about 100 people waiting at airport ranks getting late for work and lots of people around 4 or 5 in evening going to airport about to miss their flights.so in this way they are serving the people very well.now about the fare ,say ,if u are going to city and other person going in the same direction who lives at the other side of the city,say if the fare is $20 in the city first one will pay $15.this way he saved his money.and if the fare is upto $30 at 2nd stop,other cust will pay $23.this way everyone is happy,and yeah wats wrong in that….?more people are getting home in one trip,its good than waiting at ranks waiting for hours.
A lot of cabbies seem to be commenting here that this is a good idea, and a lot of customers are commenting here that its not. What’s wrong with this picture? The reason its a bad idea, as very clearly stated in the blog post, is that the fare/cost is higher when you share. Its a fairly simple calculation, its not fucking rocket science. And to say that the benefit is less waiting is just silly. The reason we wait so long is because there’s not enough cab licenses, because the industry is now doing its calculations on the idea that cabs should be shared. Again, go figure.
So if another cabby comes in here telling us how great an idea it is, or the great other benefits of it, I think I’m going to scream.
I’m not against sharing a cab as far as the service is right, there is minimum waiting time and most of all the price is not sky-rocketted, you all understand what I mean. I’ve been working for the past 5 years with taxi industry on an international level as manager of the major worldwide online taxi community ( Info Taxi ) and therefore I can say my opinion is quite formed when we talk about taxi sharing, that I do not consider it as something necessarily bad. I don’t care if taxi companies that are practicing this option may gain more with share cabs than with conventional option. I think that in the end, the customer has the right to choose if they go with a share option or not. If on and all the customer saves something by sharing a cab and on the other hand the taxi company gains more, the way I see it, it’s a win to win situation.
An yes, I agree with Richard that the main problem is the lack of licences and in the end the customer is the one who suffers the most the protectionism that many exercise in this industry.
It’s very easy to dismiss positive comments by assuming everyone who disagrees with you is a taxi driver, and just so you know, RBF, I’m not a taxi driver either.
(Just because your last post seems to be weirdly worded and I don’t want you to get the wrong impression: the fare is higher than it was before, when you share, but it’s still cheaper than paying for a cab by yourself)
Scream all you like, but hearing the other side of the argument is often the intelligent thing to do. I hope after all these comments, you’ll realise that this is a fair compromise. As Devil and Skyring have already said, taxi drivers previously had no incentive to allow passengers to save on a 50% fare, especially when they could have two passengers pay a full fare on two separate trips. Passengers can be happy knowing that they can help the environment, be nice to a stranger for once and also save money by sharing, nevermind what the price used to be. People can go on about how much bread used to cost when they were youngsters or whatever, but when it comes down to it, its just not helpful.
This way, drivers are happier too, and what is so wrong with that? Frankly, I think its really selfish, only seeing this from one perspective. Youre obviously well off enough to afford taking a taxi rather than deign to share a bus with lowly strangers, why dont you try and think about people who are less fortunate than you? New things are not all just devious ways for strangers to rip you off, and although its probably simpler to revert to loud-mouth cynic, its more intelligent to think things through.
Further, I dont see whats so wrong with an industry that calculates the numbers based on shared cabs. As long as there is no ten suburb gap between you and the second passenger, the benefits far outweigh any costs to the individuals sensibilities.
I personally think that carpooling, environmentally friendly cars, taking buses and cycling to work are all developments that will increase in the future, not only because its beneficial to the environment, but also because its beneficial to people. I hate the idea of everyone becoming selfish assholes enough that they cant stand sitting next to a stranger, or not helping someone who needs it. If more interaction between people in the street is the solution to mass apathy, Im all for it.
Thank god I’m not the only one who think this is a rip off!! I shared a taxi for the first time last week at Canberra Airport. The driver squeezed 7 passengers in a 8-seater van and we headed to the City. It normally cost me $17 + fees for a ride to the City. I was lucky enough to be the fifth one dropped, and when I got there the cabbie charged me the full $25 fare!!! This is disgraceful!! I didn’t argue at the time, I was too pissed off to have wasted 20 minutes driving random people around town, so I signed the docket anyway. I estimated that the driver made $150 for a single ride to the city ($20 x 7 passengers). I made an official complaint to Aerial Taxi, hopefully they will bother reading it, and I will never share a taxi again.
In a strange corollary to this post, last week I managed to get in one of those new taxi vans and said “No” to picking up extra passengers, and we spent the rest of the trip discussing why, which was weird. Anyway, his argument was that there aren’t enough passengers to support a full time taxi service, so drivers make up the extra by by doubling up passengers in morning and afternoon. In fact, most new taxis in Canberra are now taxi vans for exactly this reason, and it is getting worse.
I suggested that perhaps the current fleet should be made smaller to cope with the number of travellers, but he said we’d have to wait for hours at the airport for the fewer number of cabs “and anyway, its my only income and I have to put my kids through school, and you’re suggesting that I lose my job and can’t afford to bring up my children and support my family?”. To which I said “yeah, I guess I am”, just as I was getting out.
Its all bullshit, the system is broken, passengers are being ripped off, taxi drivers are being lured into the industry with promises of income, and its a self perpetuating problem that will only get worse for both passengers and drivers unless the industry is changed.
Always interesting hearing other people’s opinions. I don’t always agree with them, but nonetheless they have their reasons and it can be fascinating hearing those as well. It is one reason I still do a taxi shift each week after getting back into IT contracting. And no, I do not own a taxi. I have not seen enough in my brief six month career to convince me I could help support my family by doing so.
Some of you have obviously been ripped off by some of my less savoury (or more ignorant) colleagues, and I can only offer my apologies on behalf of us in the Canberra taxi industry with a higher standard of integrity and/or better training. It may be one reason why we are finally getting driver-IDs that have to be displayed prominently to make it easier for passengers to be sure that they are being carried by a properly trained and assessed driver instead of the driver’s cousin or friend who knows sweet FA about the local industry or city, but needs some extra income.
Richard BF, I suggest you re-direct some of your ire at the Canberra airport operator. Apparently in late 2008 he refused to let the local taxi industry operate 12-seater minibus services that would take between 15 and 20 minutes to run to “the hotspots” such as Russell Offices, Parliament House, the city centre (Civic), Woden and Belconnen. I do not know his reasons for the refusal, but guess one would be that he would not make as much money from the travelling public, who currently pay $2 extra per taxi that goes through his airport taxi rank. Some time after that he negotiated with a local bus company to run a 26 minute service with a large bus every half hour to the city bus interchange via Russell Offices and the National Convention Centre. Nice for backpackers, maybe, but useless for shifting most of the people who arrive on the dozen or so aircraft that typically land here between 07:55 and 09:35 each business day morning. The last thing they want to do is wait 29 minutes for the bus to depart (because they just missed one), then take 26 minutes to get to Civic, then get a taxi for another 5 to 15 minutes to their final destination – except they can’t because most of the taxis are servicing the airport picking up people who refuse to share a cab! Okay, cheap shot, I know. Oh, and on the weekends you get an extra bonus stop at his airport shopping centre, provided your flight arrives after 10:30 when the bus commences operating.
Richard BF, I would be very interested to hear of an airport and city this size anywhere else in the world that could cope with such a temporary surge in demand – generally smaller when Parliament is not sitting – and still maintain a commercially viable taxi fleet. I am not shy and will happily present the local government here with your information! Most non-owner taxi drivers I know are scratching to make more than $15 per hour net wages, which probably partly accounts for the high turnover of drivers. I know of a brand-new, inexperienced driver that struggled to earn $100 in a ten hour shift. They then paid the disappointed owner $50, paid the government their GST and tax, and asked “Why bother?”. Maybe owner drivers make more – they’d have to otherwise there would be an even higher turnover of plates and leases. As it is I think many are struggling since the extra 90 plates were allocated in the last two years.
If you still want some light reading after my diatribe I refer you to http://www.nswtaxi.org.au/pdf/Des%20Nicholls%20-%20NSW%20Taxi%20Reforms%2029oct09.pdf
Cheers, Perc (part-time cabbie)