Taxi scam in Sydney

In my Social Security fraud control days, We put a joint ATO/DSS team onto the taxi industry for a while. Very illuminating. A very grubby business. Taxi owners avoiding their obligations as employers by a manufactured system of "self-employment' where the drivers rent or lease the cab for a shift and are classed as "self-employed". Sorted out a lot of disability pensioners who were driving cabs more than 20 hours per week thus being ineligible for any pension. Found lots of Newstart recipients who had not declared one cent of their takings to DSS or ATO. My opinion of taxi owners as liars and cheats was formed during this project. A senior manager of one of the cab management companies bemoaned the difficulty of getting drivers even in a period of 10% unemployment, and the fact that the CES would not list cab driving jobs. I was getting a bit short on tact that day and told him that if the industry paid a fair wage and entitlements then he would not have to employ illegal immigrants, obese middle aged disability pensioners, and tax and dole cheats.

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

On tags - there are 3 different companies and the RTA supplying tags in Sydney and all use a different brand of tag and the bracket is not always interchangeable. If the taxi owner has a tag off one company and the driver off another then the bracket won't work. Yes the driver is breaking the law for not having the tag affixed to the screen.
Diana

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:angel: :eek:
:o :mad: :nazilock: :twisted: :p

I couldn't see that anybody has made the point that the tag belongs to the driver not the car. Maybe he doesn't clip it to the screen in case he forgets it at the end of the shift, as the next driver would love to use it.

Also some drivers do not have tags as they must have a credit card account to get a tag, and the RTA automatically bills. This also leaves a paper trail for tax etc.
Regard sPhilip A.

I went to smelly melly to look at landies ( before i bought the 130) we wanted to go to dsl (whatever the fruff it's called discount stores place near airport) anyhow my mate a truckie was still sleeping from his night run his missus had gone to work.
We thought how hard can it be ?
Mistake 1#
Called a cab 'can you take us to (stores name here!)
Q:Vich Vaw you Vanting to go
A: freeway would be good mate
DISASTER FROM HERE ON IN
sticks the place into the Tom Tom then gets no response he likes pulls up on a busy 4 lane road and consults the mapbook (meter still running ) still no idea i have to phone my mate and wake him up to get him to direct us onto the freeway and the 'driver' used very very loosely still tries and makes the wrong turn, finally get to the destination and i casually ask him how long you lived in Melbourne thinking he was a new import like myself, na he has lived and worked as a cabby for 22 years .....great work

I travel to Sydney pretty much every week... and I take cabs to/from Mascot each time. I have met some fantastic cabbys and some real shockers.

However, more than once - I have been warned by the cabby about the "no mate sorry the EFTPOS machine is broken" scam. They claim that the machine is broken, and they need to manually swipe your credit card in one of those plastic machines that uses carbon paper.

Now... when they use a carbon paper machine, the driver has a complete record of your credit card number, name and expiry date. That's enough to make a duplicate. If he uses the EFTPOS machine - he doesn't get a copy of he whole number.

I have been told by cabbies (again more than once) that credit card duplication has happened - in both Melb and Syd - and that you should never allow your CC to be manually swiped.

Still not wanting to be the apologist for the Taxi Industry and Reg Commode.

Harry, the Executive Fleets (Silver Service, Diamond Service etc depending on the Cab Company) are usually the better drivers (or at least not the worst drivers), so I try to get one of them it I can. However there are 2 that live in my street and neither has English as a first language.

Brian, if the Cab companies were to pay a decent wage the fares would have to rise and that is in the Government's control. Everytime cab fares rise there is outrage by the public.

Lardy, In Sydney and I would assume other States, the driver must pause the meter while he is checking a directory, GPS device and or is stationary contacting the base for information. If they don't then deduct the amount that was run up while the cab was stationary and pay that. If the driver has a problem with the deduction, say that it's O.K. you are happy for the Police to make the determination and ask to go the the closest Police station. You will find that they will accept the discounted (correct) fare.

It is useful to have have cash in your pocket when disputes about fare occur because they can't scam cash.

There are still some very awful drivers who should be off the road and I have on a number of occasions got out of the cab for fear of my life with the driving style. One occasion within 100M of the start of the fare.

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Still not wanting to be the apologist for the Taxi Industry and Reg Commode.

Harry, the Executive Fleets (Silver Service, Diamond Service etc depending on the Cab Company) are usually the better drivers (or at least not the worst drivers), so I try to get one of them it I can. However there are 2 that live in my street and neither has English as a first language.

Brian, if the Cab companies were to pay a decent wage the fares would have to rise and that is in the Government's control. Everytime cab fares rise there is outrage by the public.

Lardy, In Sydney and I would assume other States, the driver must pause the meter while he is checking a directory, GPS device and or is stationary contacting the base for information. If they don't then deduct the amount that was run up while the cab was stationary and pay that. If the driver has a problem with the deduction, say that it's O.K. you are happy for the Police to make the determination and ask to go the the closest Police station. You will find that they will accept the discounted (correct) fare.

It is useful to have have cash in your pocket when disputes about fare occur because they can't scam cash.

There are still some very awful drivers who should be off the road and I have on a number of occasions got out of the cab for fear of my life with the driving style. One occasion within 100M of the start of the fare.

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Diana, I knew Reg. Kermode when he was running his considerable fleet of over 50 taxis from a small brick office built onto the back of the Golden Fleece servo in Clovelly Road. I used to buy decommissioned cabs from him for resale in Brisbane. Did very nicely for himself did Reg, with Taxis Combined Services and Cabcharge. Typical taxi owner though, meaner than Scrooge.

As to taxi fares having to rise to pay a fair wage to drivers I say this. Cab fares are already excessive to the point where for years now I refuse to use them except where there is absolutely no alternative. The drivers could be paid a fair return for their labour but the owners/operators would have to reduce their excessive share of the takings. Many taxi licence owners have never owned, operated, or driven a taxi. They rent or lease the licence to an operator who in turn rents the cab to drivers. The restriction on licence numbers gives the licences an inflated artificial value. This results in taxi licences increasing in value at a far greater rate than good real estate. Many licence owners have invested in licences for solely this reason and have often bought them with windfalls like early retirement and redundancy packages, sduperannuation, or real estate capital gains. It would be an improvement if the govt. licencing bodies issued owner/driver licences as is the practice in some European countries where o/d licences are issued for an annual fee and may not be sold or transferred, and must be operated and driven by the owner/owners. This could operate alongside the existing system where owners/operators employ drivers and the licences could still be traded.

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

As to taxi fares having to rise .........the owners/operators would have to reduce their excessive share of the takings.

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So what is excessive in relation to the input costs of running a Taxi? If you look at it as solely a business or investment mathematical issue, to cover the $300,000 price of a Taxi plate, a $20,000 annual fee to the NSW Govt and depreciation and servicing costs on a $50,000 cab doing 100,000km a year, plus the uncontrolled costs of fuel, what would be a reasonable return on your money that would be better than bank interest?

The return on the $300,000 taxi licence is in the capital gains which are greater than good real estate because of the restricted numbers. 160,000-200,000kms a year would be more likely in as metro cab working a 14 shift week except for maintenance time and repairs. Fuel is bought by the driver who rents the cab. I spoke to drivers during rthe ATO/DSS taxi industry project who were working 60-72 hours per week for a return less than a 3rd or 4th year apprentices wages.