Surely even charging $75,000 for the right to run a limousine is exhorbitant! Why isn’t it much closer to the actual cost of regulation?

Governments want to make a dollar and Fels suggestion is for them just to change the method a little about how to make a dollar.

Chris I agree why don’t they sell limo licences for $20 000. Revenue I am guessing. If the price was this low it would make it easier to compete with taxis which is a good thing. The only thing a taxi licence is guaranteeing in my opinion is to pick up hails and booked vehicles can be subject to full competition.

kelly liddle, yes there are many different licensing issues that are broken in this country. For example, in Singapore it took my step mother 1 hour to set up a fully licensed bar. 3 forms and a trip to the police station for a stamp. The actual license cost her barely anything.

Then again in Singapore you have to buy the right to own a car! (apparently the 2011 cost was around $50,000 singapore dollars – note no car included – that just allows you to buy a car). Its one way to reduce road congestions anyway

There seems to be some confusion about what a Taxi is. People talk about booking a taxi well you can book a limousine and you can buy a licence for $75 000. The difference is they can’t wait on a rank and must quote a price that is all.

Surely even charging $75,000 for the right to run a limousine is exhorbitant! Why isn’t it much closer to the actual cost of regulation?

Click on my name. It is not like I am hiding it and many here know that. 1 owner driver 150 shifts a year minimum, 5 passenger seat, plate.

I do actually think that fares in QLD are too high $2.14 per km for South East QLD.

The real question is how to remove some of the licence price and put it in the hands of the driver. So long as you accept it is a public service with obligations to serve all customers to a reasonable standard some price will need to remain so that for example there can be wheel chair taxis. I know you may may not believe in Public Transport with service obligations but that is how it is.

With Melbourne I do not know the details but some of there costs are lower but not low enough to offset the very low fare rate. As a driver there it would be extremely hard to make a dollar. I have also heard that violence is more of a problem there but don’t know if this is true or not.

I can’t give any projections because with a reduced fare it is impossible to know how many extra customers might come but halving the fare means the vehicle can only earn about 34c per km this is non stop and not counting fixed costs. So 2.14 per km divided by 2 gives us 1.07 less GST 97c plus flagfall which we will guess to be 10% of the fare so back up to $1.07. Vehicle will be hired about 50% of the time so around half the time vacant. So this gives us 54c per km. Fuel plus running could be around 20c per km (not including any costs other than fuel and maintenance of vehicle). This leaves us with 34c per km. The fastest you can normally drive is about 40km per hour so based on that $13.60 per hour. This number assumes very little waiting time and the cab is basically flat out.

Yes the car can’t be on the road all the time but it certainly can’t earn what you are talking about.

He employs 3-5 people to do 5 lots of two shifts mon-fri and four/six weekend shifts.

Give me some projections. You’re stuck in the current market conditions.

How much money could you make, if you bought a car, took 3-5 people on, worked five days a week and the taxi fares halved? Let’s say it requires a service every month.

A taxi only takes around $40 per hour now. Average might be around $3000 to $4000 per week. A week is 156 hours. Yes the car can’t be on the road all the time but it certainly can’t earn what you are talking about. Your suggested profits are way in excess of what you call monopoly profits. Earnings from a taxi for the owner might be the lease of the licence plus maybe $200 per cab on a weekly basis for a large base so around $35000 pa.

“He should be clearing 100k after tax”

Even if I owned my taxi outright and drove 60 hours a week at the busiest times and had another good driver I could not get that now before tax. The only 2 costs that could reduce would be amount paid to taxi company if that is not compulsory, I think the price would come down and the licence all the other costs would remain the same or go up as a proportion as a result of less efficiency. Increasing the allowable age of a vehicle would bring the cost down but probably only slightly.

So a relatively small barrier to entry but can only take advanced bookings and must be a quoted price. No numerical restriction on both limousines or charter buses.

Dude.

Capital costs and overheads.

Seriously kelly. What is wrong with what I said at 10 Dec 12 at 11:33 am?

I want you to be wealthy. I want us all to prosper. I don’t want some git earning monopoly profits at everyone else’s detriment.

To get into the Taxi industry in Brisbane you require about $120 000 deposit (40%) to buy a taxi for $280 000 plus stamp duty which will be around $7000. This is enough of a depost for you to buy a Maxi (wheel chair accessible taxi) with one and a half years left and the owner must drive it 150 shifts per year.

Some basic information about costs for Brisbane.

Radio fees $200 per week
Vehicle replacement $100 to $200 per week (standard vehicle can be as low as $100 but wheelchair accessable around $200 vehicle can only be 6 years from date of manufacture or 8 years for wheelchair vehicle)
Rego $150 per week (only $20 per week if wheelchair vehicle is subsidised)
Approximate cost if comprehensively insured $150 per week.
Vehicle repairs and maintenance costs from $100 to $200 per week.
Fuel will be around 10% of turnover can be a little more or less.
Cost of standard licence which if leased is around $500 per week I think.

So if just talking about taxis to keep with the theme Land zoning, Insurance, Taxi booking companies.

2. The public need taxis and we need them at times when we don’t have the tolerance for them to not be there, ie 3am after a few drinks.

Yes this is the point and have to think about that so for a maximum of 10 hours per week people wait for taxis and the rest taxis wait for them. The population all want a cab at the same time and some of them are abusive which can reduce the number of taxis on the road at that time.

The licence cost as a proportion of the fare is around 15%. So in this restricted industry how exactly are you going to reduce fares by opening it up. Even Fels did not say that it would reduce the fares only provide a better service. I am not against a better run limitation on number of taxis but no one in the industry is calling for unlimited taxis, drivers especially. Given the facts I am curious how you will get better service from lower paid drivers which is what you will get with more taxis. The only thing that can be considered better is in those peak times waiting times will reduce but all other times the drivers will not behave better because they feel more free getting less money.

There seems to be some confusion about what a Taxi is. People talk about booking a taxi well you can book a limousine and you can buy a licence for $75 000. The difference is they can’t wait on a rank and must quote a price that is all. So if the barrier to entry is too large for a taxi then you can buy a limo if you want and really think people will book you. All the costs I mentioned above will be less except the vehicle which will be a little more as it must be “luxury” the most basic being Statesman or Fairlane that can be on the road for 6 years. With Charter buses which do not have a licence you can only accept bookings that are not immediate and must be quoted price. A “bus” has at least 10 passenger seats and the vehicles can be kept for longer. So a relatively small barrier to entry but can only take advanced bookings and must be a quoted price. No numerical restriction on both limousines or charter buses.