Call for petrol levy to pump taxi fares
TAXI operators want to follow the airline industry’s lead and
charge passengers a fuel levy on all trips.
A $2 surcharge must be placed on taxi trips immediately to pay
for the increased price of LPG fuel, operators said yesterday. The
flag fall should also go up to make drivers more willing to take
short trips, they said.
“If the community is going to get a consistently better taxi
service, they need to pay more,” Victorian Taxi Association chief
executive Neil Sach said yesterday at a government forum on taxi
fares. Fares will rise on September 1, after Public Transport
Minister Lynne Kosky responds to a recommendation from the
Essential Services Commission.
Mr Sach said a fuel surcharge, similar to one put in place by
airlines to cover the cost of aviation fuel, needed to be placed on
taxi fares. LPG has gone up 15 cents a litre since 2006, according
to fuel price monitors MotorMouth. LPG prices peaked at 68 cents a
litre last month.
Driver Duku Chaplin said yesterday: “We work six or seven days a
week, 12 hours a day, and in a hostile environment %26#133; Anyone
who does this work must get a basic income.”
Victoria’s 13,000 registered taxi drivers earn an average of
just $7.50 an hour, a 2005 State Government study found.
The fledgling Victorian Taxi Drivers Association, which
represents about 200 of the city’s drivers, called for an $8 flag
fall to be introduced.
Posted
on
Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 8:33 pm under