SYDNEY'S TAXI INDUSTRY. 14TH AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT RESEARCH FORUM, PERTH 20-22 SEPTEMBER 1989; FORUM PAPERS. VOLUMES 1 AND 2

This paper discusses the operational aspects of the Sydney taxi industry which has over 4,000 taxis on the road. The industry provides a very effective service and accounts for a relatively large proportion of the Sydney cbd's trips over a 24 hour weekday period. As part of the public transport industry taxis are subject to regulations from a number of areas. One of the contentious points between the regulating authority and taxi operators is the allocation of new taxi licences. The existing taxi licences, because of their scarcity, are worth close to $200,000. The method for issuing new licences does not appear to have any numerical basis although there have been measures introduced, such as random breath testing, which have increased the demand for door to door transport services. In addition to rbt has been the introduction of the taxi subsidy scheme which provides the disabled with subsidised access to specially designed taxis which provide an efficient service for one sector of the community. Many complaints about the service offered by the taxi industry have been received and some of these complaints are investigated further in this paper. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for the future taxi operations in Sydney (a). For the covering record of the forum, see IRRD no 822808.