FROM:   Margaret Cooper

I have been travelling by taxi since 1956 and was on the first Victorian Ministerial advisory committee formed in 1981-85 to develop an excellent multi-purpose taxi programme. Unfortunately this has never happened. I complain infrequently because  complaints don’t seem to get anywhere. Below are accounts of the most recent incidents with driver and company operator names and numbers removed just in case.

Before you look at them let me answer some of your issues for comment, as best as I can given my experience is subjective and I haven’t checked hidden and available statistics.

Response times

Up until May 2001 models 1 & 2 of a Central Booking Service (CBS) was unable to guarantee a car would arrive on time no matter how much earlier the car was booked.
I arranged with a select group of drivers, who had mobile phones, to cover my bookings.

Haven’t had much trouble with Sydney, Adelaide or Canberra cabs, all of whom seem to arrive within half an hour of booking time.

Proportion of taxi fleets accessible

There are roughly 170 accessible cabs now in Melbourne. Think the number of cabs is in excess of 6,000.

Are these proportions sufficient?

No.

Measures to ensure sufficient proportion accessible

Back in 1981 we hoped at least half the cab fleet would be accessible by 1981. My impression is that, despite many reports by consultants, the fleet is only increased haphazardly.  For instance the last addition of high occupancy vehicles (HOV) occurred when the then Premier J Kennett perceived a need for tourist transport.

Universal taxi?

1. a suitably designed vehicle
2. these vehicles would need to be priced according to the taxi owners’ available and reasonable incomes
3. the Global Positioning System (GPS) could be used by all companies to require the nearest vacant access cab to take a booking.
4. Attitudinal training of drivers, owners, and companies.

Effective use of accessible fleets

Suggest you look at the Silver Top company’s plan and early operational work.

Some examples of complaints, none of which were resolved to my satisfaction.

(1). October  8th 1998
Multi-Purpose Taxi program,
Victorian Taxi Directorate,

Dear Mr Stoneham,

 It is with regret that I make a complaint about the Central Booking Service, but it is necessary to put  before you the issues which concern me, these include my personal safety.

 October 3rd I left a meeting in Coburg and went to Moreland Station. Bayside Rail employees quickly informed me, about 3.10 p.m.,  that the line was closed for signals installation. I rang Metline Information and was told I could get a w/chair accessible bus in Sydney Road. Metline soon rang back and told me their information was wrong and they would order me an accessible cab.

 At 3.20 pm a Bayside employee left his post on the other side of the tracks to tell me Central Booking Service had refused the booking. He had been rung on his personal mobile phone by Metline and was asked to ask me my name and whether I had a 31 card. I was surprised at the booking refusal as I had heard that if  PTC agency orders an accessible cab because of an interruption in public transport, then they paid the $6.0 ordinarily attached to a 31 card. I gave him my information and he rang it through to Metline who rang it through to CBS.

 At 4.0 pm I was cold, there was no shelter from the wind, and I was also nervous about waiting alone on a back street of Coburg, having been mugged in Malvern a couple of years ago. I rang CBS and spoke to an operator who said the cab would be another half hour. I mentioned my discomfort and said I would seek shelter in Sydney Road and would ring her before the half hour was up, as soon as possible in fact, to tell her where I was waiting.  My mobile number is supposed to be on the CBS computer data screen.

 At 4.20 the same operator took my mobile phone call about where I was waiting, a Caltex One Stop Shop at 265 Sydney Road. I was actually sitting in the sun next to an old fire hose cabinet, right at the entry to the driveway. 4 -6 sedan cabs drove in but no accessible cab. The sun went in, people started to lurk in the street shadows, I was spooked  and mobile phone called the operator at 5.0pm. She told me that two cars had been dispatched, one to Moreland Station and one to the Caltex One Stop Shop. I reminded her I had rung her about the change in pick up point, and said the 2nd cab had not driven past me. She contradicted me and said she could send a 3rd cab but I would have to wait an hour and a half at least because “no one will want to pick you up when you aren’t at the place you should be.” The mobile phone cut out and I didn’t bother putting in another call to CBS.

I moved to the warm shelter of the nearest McDonalds, rang an experienced accessible cab owner  who appreciated my concerns and drove across town to pick me up.  I got home at 7.0 pm.

 This incident raised several issues which need to be resolved. They are as follows:
? Is CBS providing an effective link with PTC services?
? Did a driver get a PTC payment for work he didn’t do? Is my rescuer entitled to a PTC payment?
? Are passengers expected to wait in situations where they feel at risk?
? If my mobile phone number is on the computer data screen, as I have been told by CBS operatives, why didn’t CBS ring me if the 1st & 2nd cab drivers were querying the pick up point?
? If there really was a 2nd cab why didn’t he drive into the One Stop Shop driveway?
? What would have happened to me if I had been speech impaired and unable to use a mobile phone? I remember being at Chadstone Shopping Complex earlier this year when a very distressed male speech impaired wheelchair user alerted me to the fact his cab had not turned up for a booking an hour overdue. I rang CBS for him but two hours later I was amazed to see him trying to explain to a Chadstone security officer  that he still hadn’t been picked up, and needed some one to ring CBS for him. Certainly no one from CBS checked to see if I got home from Coburg.
? What training do CBS operatives get in customer relations?
? Is there a customer feedback mechanism which is involved in any evaluation of the CBS contract?

Thank you for your attention to these issues.

(2)
15/5/2000
Peter Batchelor
Minister for Transport,

Dear Minister,

 I need to know what performance indicators are being applied to the Multi Purpose Taxi Program (MPTP), and how customer views are incorporated into those performance indicators. Furthermore I am requesting information about how privatised train and bus systems are providing wheelchair accessible alternative transport in the event of breakdown of a service.

 Yesterday was Mothers’ Day and our family agreed to celebrate by lunching at  Cafe Hobson in Sandringham. This restaurant is popular and bookings are essential, we booked for 2.0 pm.  Because of the inability of the MPTP Central Booking Service (CBS) to guarantee a wheelchair accessible taxi could pick me up on time, (several bookings of mine have been unacceptably late or unable to be fulfilled this year),  I set out by train at 12.30 pm.

At 1.10 pm Melbourne Central staff informed me the Sandringham line was closed temporarily, because of tree damage to a train, and advised me to go to South Yarra station where I would be able to finish my journey by wheelchair accessible bus or taxi.  The station master said she would pre-book a taxi. At South Yarra Bayside train staff  were very kind however they were unable to locate a wheelchair accessible bus, although I understand the Ventura company which provided Bayside with emergency bus transport for pedestrians does have a wheelchair accessible bus. I was very cold and distressed.  Bayside staff did check there was a booking for a wheelchair accessible taxi, but were unable to determine when, or if, a taxi would arrive. I rang CBS at least three times and was told no driver had bid on the job. At 2.40 pm on my last call to CBS, I asked if they could book a station-wagon taxi instead. None arrived. I waited at South Yarra until 3.17 pm when the Sandringham line ran again.

 Analysis of this incident begs several questions.

? What are the performance indicators of the MPTP?
? When will the licencing agreements be developed to ensure wheelchair accessible cabs give priority to customers with disabilities?
? What are the performance indicators of CBS?
? Where can input into development of the transport system be best directed by customers with disabilities?
? When will all bus services be wheelchair accessible?
? Should the Department of Infrastructure, or each rail and bus service, have an emergency wheelchair accessible vehicle available in the advent of  service breakdown?

This is the second time in two years, when I have experienced a rail service
cessation and have been stranded without a means of continuing a journey. Last year I complained to the Victorian Taxi Directorate and received a general letter saying the licencing of High Occupancy Vehicles would be the solution.

I am happy to discuss this matter further.

(3)
29/11/2000
Peter Batchelor
Minister for Transport,

Dear Minister,

I am writing to you about concerns with the Multi-Purpose Taxi Program insofar as there appears to be no organisation, other than the Central Booking Service, interested in making sure wheelchair passengers get good service.
 

The following list of incidents is not unusual and many other passengers could
reel off a similar list of poor services.

- 10/11/00 I had a 9.15 am booking from Armadale to the University of Melbourne. The M50 cab did not arrive until 10.10am
- 15/11/00 I had a booking from Armadale to Glen Iris for 9.15 am to get to hydrotherapy. No cab called on the job and my attendant carer and I had to walk for twenty-five minutes to cover the distance, me in my electronic chair, and the carer pushing a lifting machine.
- 15/11/00 an accessible cab was called by CBS to fill in for my private booking from Armadale to Melbourne airport. The fare normally runs about $45, this time the M50 docket read $60.00. See attached docket. My attendant carer was asked to pay $35.00 cash, and did so.   As I was in the terminal checking in for the 16.10 flight, I didn’t know or I would have queried the fare.
- 20/11/00 I was to be picked up at 16.00 pm to go from Collingwood to
      Armadale. A Blue cab ran from Highett to Collingwood to pick me up at
      17.30 pm. While CBS had been calling my job without success, another job
      was called for the city to Tullamarine and was ‘crashed’ by a number of cabs.
- 24/11/00 I waited at Chadstone Shopping Centre until 17.30 pm for a cab. The booking was made for 16.0 pm.

  There is excellent service provided by many  M50 owner/drivers. Consequently
  these particular people have more work than they can handle.

  My impression is that many High Occupancy Vehicles, particularly those with the
  $65,000 licences, do not want to carry wheelchair passengers. I also feel that the
 various depots who can enforce licence provisions, do not do so.  The Victorian Taxi
  Directorate also seems  reluctant to discipline licence holders.   The most visible
  entity to passengers,  the Central Booking Service, is unfairly blamed for the cabs’
  poor performance.

  I understand that the Public Transport Access Council has also raised taxi
  performance   issues with your Department but has been unable to meet with you
  directly.

C’est la vie?