Taxi industry inquiry



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Table 13 Growth assumptions used in the inquiry’s longer term modelling

Assumption

Figure

Source of estimate

Cost growth (excluding payments to licence owners)

3.5%

Consistent with historic fare growth between 1991 and 2011263

Fare growth under TII proposals

3.5%

Consistent with historic fare growth

Fare growth under industry proposals

4.0%

Higher growth than TII assumption reflecting higher payments to licence holders

Demand growth (pre-waiting time effects)

2.5%

Consistent with moderate growth in income and consumption

Own-price elasticity of demand

-0.51

One-half of inquiry surveyed value

The inquiry compares its modelling of the approach recommended in this report with its modelling of the licence trigger approaches supported by the VTA in the tables below, estimated over five, 10 and 20 years.



Table 14 Comparing the inquiry’s proposals with industry proposals (five, 10 and 20 years)

5 year

Base year

Industry proposal (1)

Industry proposal (2)

TII proposal

Fares ($ per passenger kilometre)

2.43

2.96

2.96

2.89

Number taxis

4,085

4,111

4,389

4,491

Passenger demand (million passenger kilometres)

255.4m

260.9m

268.6m

274.5m

Response time (minutes)

8.6

8.6

7.9

7.7

Payments to licence holders ($)

29,000

41,059

35,631

20,000

Driver payments per hour ($)

13.66

16.86

16.26

17.44

Total driver payments ($m)

310.5m

385.6m

397.1m

435.7m

Licence value264 ($)

480,000

684,000-912,000

594000- 792,000

250,000-300,000




10 year

Base year

Industry proposal (1)

Industry proposal (2)

TII proposal

Fares ($ per passenger kilometre)

2.43

3.60

3.60

3.43

Number taxis

4,085

4,119

4,654

4,825

Passenger demand (million passenger kilometres)

255.4m

262.5m

276.5m

288.4m

Response time (minutes)

8.6

8.6

7.4

7.1

Payments to licence holders ($)

29,000

55,019

42,318

20,000

Driver payments per hour ($)

13.66

20.60

19.20

20.25

Total driver payments ($m)

310.5m

472.1m

497.3m

543.8m

Licence value ($)

480,000

917,000-1,223,000

705,000-940,000

250,000-300,000




20 year

Base year

Industry proposal (1)

Industry proposal (2)

TII proposal

Fares ($ per passenger kilometre)

2.43

5.32

5.32

4.84

Number taxis

4,085

4,056

4,775

5,194

Passenger demand (million passenger kilometres)

255.4m

249.5m

267.6m

299.6m

Response time (minutes)

8.6

8.6

7.0

6.5

Payments to licence holders ($)

29,000

83,825

59,694

20,000

Driver payments per hour ($)

13.66

29.43

26.81

27.56

Total driver payments ($m)

310.5m

664.3m

712.4m

796.7m

Licence value ($)

480,000

1,400,000- 1,863,000

950,000-1,327,000

250,000-300,000

The inquiry concludes that:

In the shorter term:


    • The inquiry’s proposals produce significantly more entry than the approach that maintains waiting times (Industry proposal 1) and more entry than the approach that caps assignments at their current level in real terms (Industry proposal 2)

    • Waiting times are significantly reduced under the inquiry’s approach and also reduced under Industry proposal 2

    • Fares are broadly similar under all approaches

    • There is a significant benefit to drivers under the inquiry’s proposals compared to Industry proposal 2, due to the increase in payment to 55 per cent of the fare box. This reflects the desired transfer from licence owners to drivers, which should have some further impact on driver quality (not modelled here).

In the longer term (10 to 20 years), the differences between the approaches become more stark:

    • The impact of capping assignment values at $20,000 means that there is significantly more entry, a slower growth in fares and significantly more trips taken in taxis than in either Industry proposals 1 or 2

    • The impacts of the licensing restriction become minimal under the inquiry proposals, as licence values stay at around $250,000 in nominal terms ($150,000 in real terms) while continuing to grow under Industry proposal 1 (to very high levels) and increasing in nominal terms under Industry proposal 2 (and even this outcome assumes that the industry’s proposal of assignment capping via licence release is implemented effectively)

    • Considerably more money from the fare box makes its way to drivers, with at least nine per cent more revenue going to drivers than under either of the industry proposals.

The inquiry considers that this modelling demonstrates the benefits to consumers of moving to a less restrictive licensing system. The short term benefits arise in the form of better driver quality, while in the longer term benefits derive from lower fare growth, greater availability and growing the market more generally.

This modelling also does not take account of benefits from greater scope to innovate and do more non-traditional taxi work, which becomes more feasible with lower licence prices (including share rides and fixed route work). Nor does it account for additional cost savings that are achievable through the proposed measures, including advertising and the removal of mandatory affiliation.



Impact of hire car changes

The inquiry has also considered how changes to the regulation of hire cars and the introduction of PBOs will affect demand for taxis. This can be incorporated into the modelling by bringing hire car demand into the demand function for taxi services. While it could be expected that the two are negatively related  so that more hire cars would lead to reduced taxi demand  it is highly uncertain just how close this link is. Formally, in the model this is reflected in a cross-elasticity: the percentage impact of a one per cent increase in hire cars on the demand for taxi services. The inquiry considers this value must be inferred based on a reasonable judgement of the likely substitutability of these services and the respective shares in demand of the two services currently (that is, it is unreasonable to assume a very large cross effect, purely because taxis currently have a far greater share of demand for pre-booked services).

The inquiry’s modelling has therefore focused on the impact of cost reductions from lower licence prices and the removal of luxury vehicle requirements, and the increased entry this may facilitate. This modelling indicates that the proposed changes will have a relatively minor impact in the short term. This is because the cost savings expected are not quantitatively large – the inquiry estimates cost savings of around $3,000 per year broadly split between similar-sized reductions in licence and vehicle costs. This is expected to lead to entry of around 100 to 200 more hire cars.

At this rate of entry, the inquiry expects that the impact on demand for taxi services will be relatively minor. For example, using an elasticity of taxi demand with respect to numbers of hire cars of -0.05 (a 10 per cent increase in hire cars leads to a –0.5 per cent fall in taxi demand) with 200 new hire cars would lead to just over a one per cent decrease in taxi demand. This is the equivalent of 13,000 passenger kilometres per new hire car that switch from taxi users. This kind of effect would only have a minimal impact on the operation of taxi services in the short term.

Finally, the inquiry does not factor in any changes in prices by PBOs as part of this modelling and nor would it be appropriate to do so. The reason is that the proposed changes primarily affect fixed costs and changes in fixed costs do not affect firms’ pricing decisions. A well-known result in economics is that firms profit-maximise by equating marginal revenue with marginal cost, not fixed costs. The size of fixed costs ultimately determines how many firms will be feasible in the industry and this is the kind of effect modelled by the inquiry.
List of acronyms

4WD Four Wheel Drive

ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics

ACCC Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

ACL Australian Consumer Law

APCA Australian Payments Clearing Association

ATDA Australian Taxi Drivers Association

ATO Authorised Taxi Organisation

BCC Black Cabs Combined

CAV Consumer Affairs Victoria

CBD Central Business District

CBS Central Booking Service

CCTV Closed-circuit television

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CH Country hire car

COAG Council of Australian Governments

CSM Customer Satisfaction Monitor

DARU Disability Advocacy Resource Unit

DOT Department of Transport

DSAPT Australian Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport

EFTPOS Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale

ESC Essential Services Commission

FCLC Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria

GMTLR Greater Melbourne Taxi Licence Release

GPS Global Positioning System

GST Goods and Services Tax

IPART Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal

IRR International Rate of Return

MH Metropolitan hire car

MPTP Multi Purpose Taxi Program

NBG National Billing Group (CabFare)

NCP National Competition Policy

NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme

NMI National Measurement Institute

NSP Network Service Provider

NSW New South Wales

NYC TLC New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission

OH&S Occupational Health and Safety

OIML International Organization of Legal Metrology

PBBS Performance Based Booking Service

PBO Pre-Booked Only cab

PCI Payment Card Industry

PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers

RACV Royal Auto Club of Victoria

RBA Reserve Bank of Australia

RH Registered Hire

RTO Registered Training Organisation

SV Special Purpose Vehicle

TIA Transport Integration Act 2010

TII Taxi Industry Inquiry

TISV Taxi Industry Stakeholders Victoria Incorporated

TSC Taxi Services Commission

VCAT Victorian Civil and Administrative Council

VCOSS Victorian Council of Social Service

VDAC Victorian Disability Advisory Council

VECCI Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry

VEIC Victorian Events Industry Council

VEOHRC Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission

VSBC Office of the Victorian Small Business Commissioner

VTA Victorian Taxi Association

VTD Victorian Taxi Directorate

VTIC Victorian Tourism Industry Council

WAT Wheelchair Accessible Taxi

WCAV Wedding Car Association of Victoria



1 Office of the Premier of Victoria, Media Release (28 March 2011), ‘Taxi services reform to commence with industry inquiry’

2 Copies of these Acts are available at the Victorian Legislation and Parliamentary Documents website: www.legislation.vic.gov.au

3 Office of the Premier of Victoria, Op. Cit.

4 Parliament of Victoria, Legislative Assembly, 2 June 2011

5 See chapter 5 of the inquiry’s Draft Report

6 See chapter 22 of the Draft Report for a more detailed discussion about the principles of best practice regulation

7 Commissioned research papers are available at the inquiry website.

8 Chapter 2 of the Draft Report sets out the inquiry’s approach to collecting information and data, and the difficulties it encountered in obtaining comprehensive and accurate data

9 Appendix A of the Draft Report contains details of the inquiry’s community engagement strategy

10 TISV is a new organisation established during the life of the inquiry 'to act in the interests of the Victorian taxi industry’.

11 Latitude Insights (2012), Taxi Services Commission: Consumer Detriment Research – Prepared for the Taxi Industry Inquiry, Melbourne

12 Ipsos Social Research Institute (2012), Taxi and Hire Car Research 2011 – Prepared for the Taxi Industry Inquiry, Melbourne

13 Full details of the results of this work are set out in The Hensher Group Pty Ltd (2012), Demand for Taxi and Hire Car Services in Melbourne – Prepared for the Taxi Industry Inquiry, Melbourne. This report is available at the inquiry’s website. The Ipsos Social Research Institute (2012) work also found that more than 30 per cent of non-taxi users nominate cost as the main reason they do not use taxis.

14 Hon. R Maclellan, Minister of Transport, 2nd Reading Speech, Transport Regulation (Assignment of Licences) Bill, Legislative Assembly, Hansard, 13 November 1980, p. 2,800

15 A discussion and timeline of the history of taxi licensing is set out in chapter 6 of the Draft Report.

16 Ipsos Social Research Institute (2012), Op.Cit.

17 Around 81 per cent of assignable taxi licences in metropolitan Melbourne are now assigned, compared to 26 per cent of assignable regional (Country and Urban zone) taxi licences (from licence data provided by the VTD).

18 VECCI, VTIC and VEIC submission L180, p. 1

19 VTA submission L179, p. 4

20 TISV submission E347, p. 2

21 Taxi Link Pty Ltd submission L178, p.1

22 ATDA submission E30, p. 2

23 VTA submission L179, p. 10

24 TISV submission E347, p. 10

25 TISV submission E347, p. 5

26 Rosa Mrmacovski submission 802, p.2

27 George Kitsakis submission 641, p.2

28 Anonymous submission 488, p.2

29 Anonymous submission 1020, p.2

30 Taxi Link submission L178, p.1

31 Yusef Ozyilmaz submission L052, p.1

32 TISV submission E347, p.11

33 Anonymous submission 1519, p.2

34 Peninsula Taxis submission L158, p.12

35 Taxi Link submission L178, p. 2

36 Hans Zonneveldt submission L081, p.2

37 Anonymous submission 369, p.1

38 Latrobe Valley Taxi Company Pty Ltd submission L021, p. 2. The company also pointed to the substantial depot fees currently paid by licence holders of $12,000 per annum.

39 Melbourne Zebra Taxi Alliance Inc. submission E348, p. 2

40 ATDA submission E30, p. 6

41 VCOSS submission E494, p.3

42 Federation of CLCs Victoria submission E271, p. 2

43 This assumes that operators can make $20,000 per year from operating the taxi. If that was not the case, then the licence value will fall to a level consistent with that lower stream of income. No new licences would be acquired at the $20,000 annual price


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