The state government has moved to make it easier to get a cab home, by releasing an additional 30 full-time taxi plates.
The state government has moved to make it easier to get a cab home, by releasing an additional 30 full-time taxi plates.
Transport Minister Troy Buswell also announced changes to industry regulations today that would allow the release of up to 300 additional plates to meet demand.
Mr Buswell said the Government would immediately commence the process to make the required amendments to the Taxi Regulations 1995, a move which was endorsed by the Taxi Industry Board.
"We will immediately release 30 full-time taxi plates, which is the most we can release without breaching the regulated 35 per cent cap on full-time lease plates," Mr Buswell said.
"We will also act as fast as possible to change these regulations to increase the cap to 45 per cent, so we can release sufficient numbers of full-time lease plates to meet growing demand.
"While the release of additional plates is primarily to address the issue of availability, it will ultimately benefit the industry also - as we improve availability and customers' satisfaction the result will be a greater increase in demand for taxis, and more business for taxi operators."
Mr Buswell said that once the regulations were amended, more full-time plates would be released each month until the industry can meet agreed performance targets.
"I hope to be in a position to release additional plates to the 30 we will release this week within the next three months."
The extra plates will be made available through an expressions of interest process.
The transport minister said the latest industry figures showed the taxi industry was failing to meet increasing community demand.
In the December 2010 quarter, demand for taxis increased by 6.2 per cent in the peak period and by 12.8 per cent in the off-peak period when compared with 2009.
Jobs not covered (JNC) targets of one per cent for peak and 0.5 per cent for off-peak were supported by the Taxi Industry Board in April 2010.
In the peak period, JNC performance worsened from 2.78 per cent in 2009 to 4.23 per cent in 2010, and from 0.76 per cent to 1.09 per cent in the off-peak.
"The fact that almost 12,000 additional jobs were not covered in the December 2010 quarter when compared to 2009 is not acceptable, and is even more concerning when we consider the impact of this on the public's perception of the taxi industry," Mr Buswell said.