SYDNEY TAXIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1943, Page 6

SYDNEY TAXIS

COMPLAINT OF RACKET

ILLEGAL PRACTICES

(0.C.) SYDNEY, January 19. Pre-war visitors to Sydney remember with approval the efficient and cheap taxi service which operated in this city. Were they to return today they would fancy they had fallen into the hands of modern highwaymen. ! From sixpence to ninepence a mile could not be considered an unreasonable increase in fare in view of added war costs and petrol shortage, but tbe stranger would soon learn that he could not hire a cab at the regulation rate. Taxi cabs are rationed to 90 gallons of petrol a month and on this allowance drivers say they would not earn the basic wage.of £4 15s a week if they scrupulously observed all the regulations. So they flagrantly commit breaches which range from dealing in black market petrol to rigging the meter. Taxi-drivers boast that they pay up to 5s for a one-gallon black market petrol ration ticket, and on top of that they pay 2s lOd a gallon for petrol Consequently they strive to make every mile they travel as remunerative as possible. They refuse to take long trips into the suburbs and although they are obliged by law to go wherever directed they tell prospective passengers they have not sufficient petrol. They cater for short runs, Sarticularly to centres where they now they have a good chance of picking up a return fare. Nearly all drivers practise "jitneying" in defiance of the regulations. "Jitneying" is touting for additional fares after the cab has been hired. The original passenger is taken for a ride round the city while the driver (he often has a tout beside him) can-' vasses for other passengers going in the same direction. He bargains with the new passengers at so much each, then proceeds to drop them en route to the destination of the most distant traveller. The original hirer is generally charged according to the meterreading although he may have travelled twice as far as he need, have. SERVICEMEN FARES. Taxi-drivers were originally spoilt i by Allied servicemen, who gave generous tips and were ignorant of localities and exchange values. They have grown wiser, but they still constitute the bulk of taxi-users because of their willingness to pay more than meterreadmgs. Some drivers are making £20 a week, and* as an indication that the owners are sharing in the illegal harvest, the recognised price for the sale of a taxi-cab licence is £1200. There are signs, however, that the "racket" will not last. More police have been assigned to trap drivers for illegalities and the Transport Minister, Mr. ;M. O'Sullivan, has threatened to take licences from offenders. Honest drivers are perturbed by the malpractices that have cropped up in their business. and the taxi-drivers' section of the Road Transport Workers' ; Union, which controls about two- ; thirds of the taxi drivers, is attempt- ■ ing to weed out racketeers. The union 1 has set up a special discipline commit--1 tee and is asking, for a Royal Commission to inquire into the industry. ; The secretary of the union, Mr. J. ° Piatt, said there would be some startling disclosures if a commission were 1 appointed.-