Perth Voice Interactive

“IT’S so quiet out there right now, you can’t make a living out of it.”

Taxi driver Phil McGree is fed up. He says his industry’s going down the toilet, and it’s not helped by drivers who refuse to use one.

“I’ve been driving taxis since 2008,” he says. “The industry is stuffed—it’s full of idiots, and between the mining downturn and Uber, my livelihood has pretty much ended.”

He made $122 Tuesday night last week, minus $20 for LPG.  “Quite frankly, I hate my lifestyle at the moment, and hate my job. My industry and lifestyle has been destroyed by people applying third-world conduct and attitudes to a first-world country. I dread getting in my taxi. It’s like walking to my own execution each time.”

He reckons the rot set in when too many taxi plates were issued during the mining boom. The job opened up to just about anyone and driver standards dropped markedly.

He says he was lucky not to purchase plates, instead investing spare cash in shares. Other owner-drivers he knows are stuck with plates they might have bought for $300,000, but which are now worth half that, at best.

One driver he knows in that situation is “stuck”. “He can’t sell the plate unless he also gives up his house. Imagine spending every day of your life facing fnancial oblivion. That driver is now close to suicide. He thinks of it daily. What sort of lifestyle is that? What the bloody hell are we doing here?

“The state government has made it clear that it won’t offer compensation. The main reason for the sudden devaluation of taxi plates is Uber.

“Uber is illegal. It’s not a grey area, it’s not vague… the state government has chosen to ignore its own regulation and is turning a blind eye to Uber.”

He says he has little faith the Swan Taxis tribunal will properly investigate the verge poo incident (Voice, March 5, 2016). “All the driver has to do is convince them that it was some sort of medical emergency and he couldn’t wait any longer.

“I’d like to see the department of transport cancel his taxi driver’s licence. Such a disgusting and blatant act deserves that. But no, bugger-all will be done about it. Instead my industry continues to go down further. The Titanic had better prospects. Personally, I’ll be getting out of it in the near future. Like every other taxi driver, my life is a misery these days. There is no future for me.”

by DAVID BELL