Taxi Industry Inquiry

The Taxi Industry Inquiry was instigated by the Victorian Government in March 2011 with a broad mandate to review the taxi and hire car industry. The Inquiry is chaired by Professor Allan Fels AO and is to report mid 2012. Assitant Commissioner Dr David Cousins AO spoke to the November meeting of the MTF, as did Ben Roscoe, NetTaxi, which has proposed new communication technology to improve taxi operations.
The MTF submission to the Inquiry made the following points

- an industry structure that enables good returns to taxi drivers such that it becomes a worthwhile job;
- driver training systems fully recognising the demands of the task;
- taxis better integrated into the transport network and into the transport planning system;
- market mechanisms that can better match the oversupply of taxis to the shortfall in taxi trip delivery;
- establishment of taxi trip making and performance data streams and monitoring regime;
- relating the complaint and feedback loop directed to quality improvement;
- modern communications technology to provide an alternative to network service providers;
- locally based taxi operations which can work closely with local governments regarding local facilities and taxi needs, also integrated with community transport task of local governments.