Humorous Submission with Reality

Humorous Submission with Reality

AN OPEN LETTER TO ANYONE WHO CARES

01.07.92

Every day the newspapers carry advertisements stating “Taxi Drivers Wanted”. These adverts attract the unemployed and migrants. Al are welcome. Al you need is a driving licence, a pulse and about $500.00. Being able to speak English or knowing your way around Sydney, now that could be a bit of a problem.

To keep the training school, the sale of UBDs, money bags and cards with lists of where to buy gas, in full swing, you need a quick turnover of taxi drivers. And, boy, have we got a quick turnover! Each week 100 new taxi drivers eagerly enter the taxi business and each week 100 disillusioned causalities exit, why?

Because, you need the ignorance and lack of knowledge of the new (and migrant) taxi drivers, to be able to charge them $50 M to $100 M AYEAR (!) above the legally available limit: the Award.

And the deception starts with the BIG LIES of the Taxi Training School, which are:

1. Driving a taxi is as safe as being a bank teller. A LIE.

2. You WILL get good money during a Taxi. A LIE.

3. There is a shortage of taxi drivers. A LIE.

4. The taxi co-ops will treat you right. A LIE.

5. You will find out driving a taxi is the Job you haw ever had. A LIE.

6. You will never need to pay tax again. THATS THE TRUTH.

7. There is a union but not active. A LIE.

8. There is an award exists. NEVER MENTIONED!

9. A good taxi driver never tells anybody – even his wife – what he earns because he is afraid the tax office might get to hear of it. A LlE. IT IS MOST PROBLY because HE IS TOO ASHAMED OF WHAT HE EARNS.

If it’s so bad why people still do it? Why don’t they give it away? They do. At hast 5,000 a year AND THERE ARE ONLY 5000 TAXIS!

Why do people get into driving taxis in the first place?

Advertising for the taxi schools is; in al newspapers, at the CES, and on the sides of taxis. You turn up al the training school, you pay your $425.00 fees, you buy a currant UBD, a money bag, and a list of where to buy gas.

Then the how-to-be-a-good-taxi-driver lessons start with a video an insurance agent and how he goes about getting customers. An instructor, who cats meat pies, drinks coke and chain smocks, gives a lecture church on health and nutrition. Another instructor - a woman this time – who also chain smokes talks about stress management. A doctor checks you to see if you have a pulse.

Then the taxi school rents you - for $40.00 - a bomb (an ax-taxi with about ten million ks on the clock) for you to use to take your driving test. The test costs $26.00. No worries there. I think they pass you if you manage to get eh hire car to the M.R. office. Now, all you have to do is get your taxi accreditation complete with photo and number. That's easy -Just $20.00.

A question often asked is how come taxi drivers, with no knowledge of Sydney, manage to pass a locality test in the first place? That's easy; the questions are accompanied by multiple choice answers, sooner or later you are bound to tick the correct answer-box, say on your fourth or fifth attempt . Lets face it, if they failed, the school would have to refund the fees , buy back the UBDs, the money bags and the lists of gas stations, Come on now, how can you lose?

The story so far: You have spent $425.00 fees , $23.00 UBD , $13.00 money bag , $2.00 list of gas stations, $40.00 hire of car, $26,00 driving test, $20.00 for ID. That is $519.00 in total. What has your $519.00 bought you? Absolutely nothing of value - just a pile of half truth:, downright lies and the hallucinations of an instructor who has gone ga-ga from years of sitting in the sun waiting for fares.

Well, you are now a taxi driver and if you are lucky, you will be approached by a private Owner end you will come to an arrangement with him. You will pay between $70.00 and $103.00 for a 12 hour day shift (upto$166.00 for a night shift) rental plus about $15.00 to $25.00 gas, lf you stay on the road for the full shift, six days a week (72 hrs!) and you are lucky, you will GROSS $300.00. But what about the unlucky ones? Well, they work for the co-ops. Well at least they turn up for work at the co-ops. It does not mean they will get a cab as there are about 4000 cabs and about 20,000 cab driven. You have to rely on Somebody not turning up. But, as they are the permanent drivers until 6.30 am to turn up, you won’t get a cab until then. Guess what, however, they will charge you from 3 am. Yes, yes still have to pay the full amount no matter what time you take the taxi out. That way the owner still gets his full $1,706.50 per cab per week minimum. lf an investor owns 10 cabs that's around a million dollars a year.

Remember what they tell you at training school: Taxi Drivers never pay tax. Any driver taking a cab on the road after 6.30 am will not make a living wage. Making you to start late is only one way the management prevent you from making a living: They Put you off the air for periods of lime ranging from two hours to 28 shifts for the most piddling of so called offenses. Offenses' such as pressing the wrong button on your radio or getting stuck in traffic.

The management, radio operators, police, parking attendants, security guards, DOT inspectors and fare evaders make sure that most taxi driven NEVER earn I living wage.

When you read in the papers that the taxi industry is cleaning up the business; getting rid off the no-hopers and cowboy: - remember these same “no hopper and cowboys” are the ones that passed through the training school a few weeks previous.

What's in it for the pubic? Nothing. You will still get dirty cabs and surely drivers who do not know they are going. Who cares? They pick up their $88,738.00 per year (not including the over $1000.00 they save by not paying holiday and sick pay) for each cab they own, no matter what state its in.

Will things get any better? Not in our life lime they won’t. Why should they? People have to use taxis. The fleet owners are making a motza ; the management are doing very nicety; the radio operators make a good wage and the 'accredited training schools' are on to a nice little earner. Sales of UBDs are up, as are sales of money bags and lists of gas outlets, the DOT employees' lives are easy. That taxi passengers do not get the best service, well that’s just too bad! The taxpayers subsidise this rip-off scheme to the tune of $2 billon dollars I year and that is not their (fleet owners) problem.

Signed (exploited cab driver)

Well, since 1992 is there any change?

Sufferings of taxi drivers went up.

Corruption went up.

Corrupt leadership of the NSW TWU are more aggressive than before.

Taxi mafia controls everyone one! I mean almost everyone!!

Even members of judiciary have joined the gang.