The son of an East European female Jewish boat person
The taxi mafia managed to silence Faruque Ahmed for the last three weeks! But, where are the other good taxi driver advocates? Why are they silent? Where are all good people?
The son of an East European female Jewish boat person who does not like boat people asked a taxi driver, “why are you here”? When the driver told him, “my country was screwed by the Brits in 1930s, by the Yanks in 1950s, and many more since then! Right now, Israel wants to nuke my country!! That’s why I am here to protect my family and children, do you have any problem with that?”
Finally, the son of an East European female Jewish boat person told the driver, “why don’t you Muslim terrorists go back to your country”.
Mamubhi
Please examine the following as well:
Cab reform comes at cost, Stupid Taxi Owners, NSW Taxi Royal Commission, Target Beyond Taxi Mafia Game and Beyond, Beyond the NSW Taxi Royal Commission, An Open Letter to NSW Premier Nathan Rees, The Power of the Taxi Mafia and Taxi Washer to Taxi Mafia are only a few recent contribution of Faruque Ahmed to counter media black out organised by the taxi mafia.
Cab reform comes at cost, Stupid Taxi Owners, NSW Taxi Royal Commission, Target Beyond Taxi Mafia Game and Beyond, Beyond the NSW Taxi Royal Commission, An Open Letter to NSW Premier Nathan Rees, The Power of the Taxi Mafia and Taxi Washer to Taxi Mafia are only a few recent contribution of Faruque Ahmed to counter media black out organised by the taxi mafia.
THE State Government has set so high a fee for new annual licences that Sydney is unlikely to see a single additional taxi. The new fee follows fiery meetings between the Government and the taxi industry, which has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Labor Party.
The new licences will be made available on an annual lease directly from the Government in a overhaul of the decades-old, dysfunctional taxi licensing system. But the Transport Minister, David Campbell, has rejected as too low an annual fee that would have boosted Sydney's taxi fleet by just 2 per cent, instead announcing the licences will be available for the top market rate of $28,600 a year, or $550 a week.
The new licences will be made available on an annual lease directly from the Government in a overhaul of the decades-old, dysfunctional taxi licensing system. But the Transport Minister, David Campbell, has rejected as too low an annual fee that would have boosted Sydney's taxi fleet by just 2 per cent, instead announcing the licences will be available for the top market rate of $28,600 a year, or $550 a week.
The fee will deter potential new entrants because it is the same as is offered by big taxi plate holders such as Cabcharge, but it will protect the sky-rocketing value of the taxi plates already owned by these key players.
A consultant's report, made public by the minister's office yesterday, found that the 1 per cent a year growth in Sydney's taxi fleet over recent years, which will continue under the new arrangements the minister announced, had resulted in worsening levels of service.
''This rate of fleet growth has not kept pace with passenger demand growth, resulting in some long-term deterioration in response times and reliability, and upward pressure on fares,'' the PricewaterhouseCoopers review said. ''It has also contributed to escalating licence values for plates traded on the secondary market, which additionally create a barrier to entry.''
The NSW Taxi Council, which represents the powerful radio taxi networks that dominate the industry, and which has been upset by the changes, put its views strongly to Mr Campbell in meetings.
The NSW Taxi Council, which represents the powerful radio taxi networks that dominate the industry, and which has been upset by the changes, put its views strongly to Mr Campbell in meetings.
Between 1999 and 2007 the council and its biggest member, Cabcharge, donated a combined $373,000 to the NSW branch of the Labor Party.
The changes have followed a Herald investigation that revealed successive state governments handed out millions of dollars worth of free taxi plates to the industry's biggest players, including Cabcharge.
Mr Campbell told the Herald: ''These reforms are about getting more cabs on the road and improving customer services, with shorter waiting times, better reliability and, in the longer term, smaller fare increases.''
However, the PwC report has found that ''to increase fleet size by 2 per cent to 10 per cent is likely to require a discount from the current market rate of $550 per week''.
Mr Campbell has opted to make no such discount available, except to say that he ''will monitor it and review it if necessary''.
Spiralling lease costs on the open market have been a crucial reason for taxi drivers being unable to make ends meet and for the continuing rise in taxi fares. Drivers rent their cabs from operators, who pay lease fees to plate owners. But plate owners, like Cabcharge, have been pushing up lease costs dramatically.
The PwC report says: ''More than a quarter of the 4.2 per cent fare increase in 2009 was due to the 8.2 per cent increase in licensing costs from the previous year. Licensing costs also contributed to the 5.4 per cent increase in maximum pay-ins payable by drivers to operators in Sydney.''
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