Taxicabs of Australia

Main article: Taxicabs by country

Brief history

Australia adopted horse-drawn taxis once cities were established and, in the case of Queensland, Brisbane introduced the first horse-drawn taxis, which plied throughout the city. These also included hansom cabs, a more elaborate type with a closed-in cabin for the passengers with two small front doors and glass windows and their driver sitting high at the back. This type of vehicle was a standard type used in England. Hansom cabs were used in Brisbane until 1935, operating from a rank outside the Supreme Court in George Street.

Motor taxis were introduced into Australia not long after they were put into service in Great Britain and Europe. In 1906 Sydney inaugurated motorised taxicabs, followed soon after by the other states.

The taxis of the period including a variety of types, with tourers and sedans. The latter were mainly French built Renaults, which were designed as taxis, not unlike the hansom cabs. Brisbane had a number of them that plied from the ranks outside Parliament House, Brisbane in Alice Street, and the Supreme Court of Queensland building in George Street. As applied to the hansom cabs, the Renaults catered mainly for gentlemen of standing, including judges, barristers and other notables. The drivers wore uniforms with leggings, the same as those worn by chauffeurs of horse-drawn carriages.

Each large taxi company had telephones installed in a steel box type cover at city and suburban ranks, direct to the switch control rooms in the city.

Although motor vehicle taxis were being used at the time, a few horse-drawn taxis continued service in Brisbane until the early 1920s. Country towns had them for a while longer.

The progress through the years included many types of tourers from circa 1910 until the late 1920s, with British and American cars predominating. Makes featured such names as Buick, Dodge, Talbot, Vauxhall, Saxon, Ford, Chandler, Studebaker, Chevrolet, Hupmobile, Whippet, Oldsmobile, Marmon, Pontiac, Hudson, Oakland, Erskine, Rugby, Essex and Chrysler.

Sedans were added during the late 1920s and included similar makes of vehicles. This was the case with all cars being imported into Australia until World War II began. The American cars proved more suitable to Australian motoring conditions, especially for taxi work. General Motors Corporation built thousands in Australia, as did the other American companies including Ford and Chrysler.

New South Wales

Toyota Camry Hybrid (Apple Taxis)

Ford Fairlane (Silver Service taxi)

The state of New South Wales, Australia is served by a fleet of around 6000 taxis. The industry employs over 22,700 taxi drivers. This state has the largest number of taxicabs and drivers in Australia.

Most taxis are Ford Falcons and Toyota Camrys, although a smaller number of Holden Commodores, Ford Fairlanes, Holden Statesman/Caprices and Toyota Taragos, Chrysler Voyagers, Holden Zafiras, Volkswagen Multivans, Toyota Hiaces and Mercedes Benz vans are in service. In general, taxis owners choose to run on liquid petroleum gas fuel.

Ford BF Falcon station wagon (Manly Warringah Cabs)

Industry structure

In general, individual taxis are owned by small-scale operators who pay membership fees to regional or citywide radio communication networks. These networks provide branding as well as telephone and internet booking services to operators and drivers.

Fares are set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales (IPART). Other aspects of the industry are regulated by the Transport New South Wales and the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales. The industry plays a self-regulating role through the New South Wales Taxi Council.

Reginald Kermode was the founder, chairman and chief executive of Cabcharge Australia, owners of the Cabcharge payment system and Taxis Combined Services, Australia's largest taxi network. The company is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Vehicle operators are represented by the New South Wales Taxi Industry Association and, in country NSW, by the New South Wales Country Operators Association. Drivers are represented by the NSW Taxi Drivers Association. Although the NSW Transport Workers Union purports to represent the drivers. Most regional centres have a local taxi network.

Queensland

Taxi services throughout Queensland are numerous and operate in all main city centres, as far north as Thursday Island off North Queensland.

Prior to a taxi company being formed in Queensland, owners of taxis simply had signs on the vehicles indicating "For Hire" painted on the side, front and rear. Before 1924, all taxis plied for hire without a means of recording the mileage, other than the driver himself calculating the fare according to how far he drove his passengers. There was a fare scale, however, the driver could charge whatever he thought was nearest to the amount specified. This no doubt, brought about the introduction of meters.

The first taxi company in Queensland was Ascot Taxi Service and was formed in 1919 in Brisbane by two motor mechanics, Edmund William Henry Beckman and Edward Roland Videan.

During the 1920s the Yellow Cab Company imported their taxis from the United States, which were built especially for taxi work by the Yellow Cab Company in Chicago. This was in 1924; the vehicle was the A2 Brougham (mustard pots) – a sedan with the driver separated from the passengers by a window with the baggage compartment in front beside him. The meter was alongside the window by the drivers side. The taxis were also the first fitted with meters in Australia. The vehicle was known as a yellow cab, having been built by the company with that name plate on the front of the radiator. The engines were also built especially for the type and were similar to the Willys Knight. The driver's compartment did not have side windows. The Broughams were taken out of service in 1936.

The Yellow Cab Company has now become the largest cab fleet in Brisbane and introduced the first computerised data dispatch from the control room to taxis. The system was designed to increase efficiency and provide a better and safer service for the public and increase drivers security. The computers have been installed into the fleet of over 580 taxis.

Allan (Walter) Ingram of Mount Morgan in Rockhampton has been driving taxis continuously for over 40 years. Ingram is now over 80 years of age and owns the Taxi Service at Mount Morgan. He could possibly be the oldest active taxi driver in Australia still driving cabs every day. He actually first drove taxis prior to World War II in 1939, and has owned a number of various makes of cars over the years.

The Taxi Council of Queensland is the trade association and its objective is to expand the total market for taxi services.

SsangYong Stavics are also currently being trialed in Queensland as 'maxi cabs'.

Victoria

Ford Falcon (FG), Black Cabs (peak service)

Ford Falcon (BF), Black Cabs (regular service)

Ford Falcon (FG), Silver Top (regular service)

File:2013 Mercedes-Benz C200 CDI (W204) sedan, Silver Top Silver Service (2015-01-02).JPG

Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Silver Top Silver Service (regular service)

Taxis are a key part of the public transport mix in the State of Victoria. Concerns about the availability and quality of taxis is currently a major public issue in Victoria.

Significant reforms were made to the industry under the Jeff Kennett government, including taxis being required to be painted yellow in 1994. In 2002, peak service taxis were introduced to operate only between 3 pm and 7 am. These versions are still yellow, but have green roofs. In 2013, the taxi regulations were relaxed to allow colours other than yellow.

The taxi industry in Victoria was the subject of a major government inquiry, the Taxi Industry Inquiry in 2011.

The structure and regulation of the taxi industry in Victoria is complex, particularly in metropolitan Melbourne. Each taxi is required to be licensed. Licence numbers are tightly restricted by government. Accreditation requirements also apply to a number of key parties in the taxi industry.

There are two main service providers in the greater Melbourne area of Victoria: the 13CABS consortium and Silvertop Taxis. As of 2011, there are 5,045 taxi cabs across Victoria including 502 wheelchair accessible taxis. The person who holds a taxi licence is known as a licence holder. Each taxi must be licensed and one vehicle only is permitted to operate on each licence.

Taxis are licensed across the state in the following numbers as of September 2015:

Metropolitan	Urban	Regional	Country
4,812	488	335	162

As at 1 April 2011, metropolitan taxi licences had an approximate market value of $512,500. Most taxi licence holders do not operate the licences they hold. Instead, the licence holders assign (or lease or rent) the right to operate a taxi under their licence to an assignee (or lessee). That person then purchases, maintains and operates the taxi vehicle and delivers the taxi service permitted by the upstream licence. Annual assignment (lease or rental) charges are typically in the order of $24,000 per annum. Licence holders who choose not to operate a taxi themselves on their licence and instead assign or lease the licence commonly benefit from capital growth in licence values. They also receive assignment fees or rent from the person who operates a taxi on the licence.

More than 60 per cent of taxi licence holders do not operate the licences they own. They assign (lease or rent) the right to operate a taxi under their licence to an assignee (lessee) who purchases, maintains and operates the taxi and delivers the taxi service. This person is known as a taxi operator. The annual assignment (or lease or rental) charges are typically in the order of $24,000 per annum.

Regulatory scheme

The taxi industry is the only major transport sector which does not have its own dedicated industry statute. The prime operational statute for the taxi industry in Victoria is the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983. Part 6 of that Act contains the key provisions regulating the taxi industry including provisions relating to licensing, accreditation and compliance.

Another key operational legislative instrument is the Transport (Taxi-cab) Regulations 2005.

The overarching Transport Integration Act (TIA) is another key piece of legislation. The TIA both establishes the taxi industry regulator and contains a set of high level policy objectives and principles which the regulator must have regard to when exercising functions including licensing and accreditation decisions.

The overarching Transport Integration Act establishes the taxi industry regulator, the Director of Public Transport. In practice, the Director who in practice delegates taxi industry functions to the General Manager of the Victorian Taxi Directorate.

Tasmania

As at 19 February 2009, there are 448 perpetual, 8 owner-operator and 45 Wheelchair accessible taxi licences on issue in Tasmania.

The industry employs over 1000 taxi drivers: some owner-drivers and most drivers on a bailiff agreement commission basis.

Tasmania Taxi in Launceston

There are 3 main providers in Hobart – 131008 Hobart, Taxi Combined and Yellow Cabs. The remainder of the industry consists of smaller fleet operators with several licences each and the rest are owner-operators.

The location of taxi ranks in the southern district are around the main CBD area, with many others in suburbs close to hobart. At Castray Esplanade the taxi rank has been extended to the bus stop, making it a total of 11 spaces and an illuminated "taxi" sign was installed at a cost of $1200 per sign. This was approved by TasPorts and paid for by the Dept of Premier and Cabinet.

The Tasmanian Taxi Association began publishing a quarterly industry newsletter "TTA Taxi Talk" in December 2008.

An article published in the Mercury newspaper named Tasmanian taxi drivers as the best in Australia.

In October 2008 Yellow Cabs began operating their first Toyota Prius, becoming Tasmania's first taxi company to run hybrid vehicles.

131008 Hobart alone service over 50 percent of Hobart's immediate population.

Western Australia

London Taxi TX4 operating as 13LCABS (Black and White Cabs) in Perth, Western Australia

There are two main taxi dispatch service operators in the greater Perth area of Western Australia – Black and White Taxis (with about 10% of traffic), providing Black & White Cabs, Sunseeker Taxis, Maxi Cabs, 13eCab and 13LCab; and Swan Taxis (with almost 90% of traffic) which dispatches Swan Taxis, 13Cabs, Easy Access Perth, Coastal Cabs, Silver Service, Tricolor and Yellow Cab taxis. Other much smaller independent dispatch companies include West Coast Cabs, Rainbow Taxis, Carlisle Cabs, Cabwest and White Eagles.

In Perth, there were 2,215 taxis operating at 2013, most being either conventional sedans or station wagons. This number included 116 multipurpose taxis that can also cater for passengers who are wheelchair-bound, 41 peak period restricted taxis and 75 restricted area taxis. An additional fifty London-style taxis were introduced in late 2013, dispatched by Black and White Cabs.

Outside the Perth metropolitan area, taxi fleets vary considerably in size from the largest, Kalgoorlie/Boulder with 44 licensed taxis (2013), to numerous very small towns with only one licence. The largest rural taxi fleets for 2014 were Kalgoorlie/Boulder (44), Mandurah (36), Bunbury (30), Broome (29), Geraldton (25), Port Hedland (23) and Carnarvon (23).

All taxis in Western Australia have meters operated by the distance and time. The meter is connected to a rooftop light that illuminates when the cab is vacant. Cabs can be booked either by phone call or on the internet. Hailing of taxis on the street is permitted in Western Australia. There are also taxi ranks at airports, many railway stations, popular nightspots and shopping centres.

Cabcharge

See also: Cabcharge

The Cabcharge account payment system was established in 1976 to provide a way to pay for taxi fares throughout Australia and participating countries. Cabcharge has been the subject of recent Federal Court proceedings over alleged anti-competitive practices including predatory pricing activities and was subjected to a record high $15 million settlement for these behaviours. The company is also facing criticism of profiteering for the 10% surcharge it imposes on taxi fares paid by card and the matter is currently being investigated by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

External links

• NSW Taxi Council
• NSW Ministry of Transport
• Category:NSW TDA Forum (Discussion Group)
• The Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER)
• Tasmanian Transport Page, produced by The DIER