From: A&M Ringland [ringland@austarnet.com.au]
Sent: Friday, 15 June, 2001 10:47
To: disabdis@humanrights.gov.au
Subject: Submission HREOC inquiry into wheelchair taxis.

       

Cairns wheelchair action group is a informal group of 
wheelchair accessible taxi users and owner/drivers 
approximately 20 in number roughly equally split between
users and providers. We meet at irregular times to suit 
the goings on within the system. Hence our recent meetings
in May-June this year to question the local taxi company 
and Queensland Transport on the failure to carry out the 
commitments given to us in November-December last year as
well as to put together a submission to this inquiry.


       The group was formed due to the perceived 
misinformation that was being feed to both the users and 
providers of the wheelchair taxis by the relevant power 
authorities both local and state. The "Blame Game", blame 
the drivers for the poor service (the least combined and 
therefore least able link in the chain to fight back). 
The drivers knew they were not the prime cause of the poor service as evidenced by some users wishing to use private bookings through mobile telephones, knowing then, they 
would have their taxi. This practice is of course illegal
in Queensland and was only practised by a few drivers.


       In August-September 2000 when it became clear the 
report on the inquiry into wheelchair taxis in Queensland 
conducted by a senior project officer of Queensland 
Transport, Mr Liam Mckay was to be suppressed we had a 
series of meetings. This resulted in a forum meeting in 
Cairns on 3rd November attended by users, owners and 
drivers of the taxis as well as local politicians, taxi 
company directors / management and Queensland Transport 
local, Townsville and Brisbane led by the Director of 
Public Transport. A watered down version of the report was released. Further promises were given by Queensland 
Transport that a review would be completed and we would be given results in January 2001 as to what was the optimum 
wheelchair taxi fleet numbers required in Cairns to meet 
the contracted Minimum Service Levels. This was to be
followed by a second forum meeting with all attending the previous meeting invited. It is now June 2001 and there 
is still silence.


       Cairns taxi fleet consists of 127 vehicles, 12 of
which are licensed to give priority to wheelchair bookings,
2 others have the capacity but the company does not inform 
them of any outstanding work on a regular basis. There is
also one stand-by taxi that is accessible which is hired 
out at a higher rate when replacing a wheelchair taxi than 
if it was replacing a standard licence taxi. Fleet numbers
have been stable since 1996.


       WE see the wheelchair accessible fleet numbers as 
being clearly inadequate to meet the minimum service levels
of the taxi contract, which was meant to give a form of 
equality of service to all users. However we don't see the
need for more taxis, just a greater percentage of the 
fleet being wheelchair accessible, it has been suggested 
this may be at least 33%. This is somewhere near the figure
we now have of Maxi taxis, we believe these taxis do pick
up near the minimum service levels.


       We believe there are ways of converting significant numbers of the fleet to wheelchair friendly. One suggestion in Liam Mckays report calls for a tender system whereby 
ordinary licences could be converted to accessible, a second suggestion is all maxi taxis should be accessible and work within the accessible fleet.


       Over recent times users of wheelchair taxis are 
changing over to pre booking a taxi rather than put a call through when it is required. This means planing your day 
in advance and sticking to it, a situation not faced by 
most taxi users unless there are appointments or air planes
to catch. This booking process has a secondary affect 
within the taxi fleet. Instead of time bookings being 
issued 5 minutes prior to booking time they are issued 10 
minutes early for wheelchair customers and in effect this
gives the taxi company 20 minutes to get the taxi to the customer within the 10 minute minimum service level. This again shows up the lack of fleet numbers.


       Pick-up times have improved over the last few months.
We put this down to 1. Cairns off season, 2. Reaction to 
fare increases of 7.8% gst followed by 13% to cover fuel 
costs plus gst. There has been a large drop in taxi demand which coincided with these fare increases resulting in the taxis sitting around vacant for much longer periods than 
normal. 3. Improvements in the taxi company job dispatch 
procedures. However we will be starting our busy season 
shortly.


       We hope what we have done in Cairns may inspire 
others to group and challenge those above who have their 
finger in the dyke and who are resisting progressive change
as well as give support to the solutions as outlined above.


    Contact addresses   Gail Harris   gailh@iprimus.com.au
                 Allen Ringland  ringland@austarnet.com.au