October 2012 - Taxi Talk Magazine

Stakeholder
survey
results
In the September edition of Taxi Talk we
mentioned that earlier in the year we conducted
a stakeholder survey. The survey
is now available at the VTD website: www.
taxi.vic.gov.au.
As a result of the comprehensive feedback
we received, the VTD has formulated
an action plan. This covers many areas of
our business.
For example in relation to responses
about the level of satisfaction with printed
forms, we are reviewing our collateral to
present information.
One of the questions in the survey
centred around responsiveness to
queries. As a result, our Accessible
Transport Services area is providing
refresher training to staff in regards to
processing of applications in MPTP
and an online manual to create consistency
across the team. We encourage
open communication between
applicant and Doctor to resolve more
complex applications in shorter time
frames.
Another question asked respondents
the way they prefer to receive
information from the VTD - 79% of
respondents prefer to be contacted
by email. Respondents also
said that they wanted to receive
updates more frequently. Consequently
we have continued to
encourage industry participants to provide
their electronic contact details. Recently we created an
online registration page on our website for this purpose, as
well as other hard copy e-details forms. We are currently developing
eNewsletters for the taxi industry, hire car industry
and passengers. We plan to release our first taxi eNewsletter
in October.
In relation to the satisfaction with the quality of VTD communication
tools – only 30% of respondents gave a favourable
response to Drive Time and 43% gave a favourable response
to Taxi Bulletin. As a result we have reviewed these
two publications and have merged them into a new print
publication called CabChat. We will send this to industry
stakeholders for whom we do not have e-details. We will
also include another hard copy e-details registration form,
as we are seeking all industry participants to provide us their
e-details, as we plan to phase out our printed newsletter over
time. We want to be able to offer more regular and targeted
communications to the industry via the eNewsletters which
will link to related information on the VTD website.
One piece of feedback from the NSPs was that there was
a lack of engagement from the VTD. Our Transport Safety
& Compliance team has responded by planning monthly
meetings with the two largest NSP’s (13CABS and Silvertop),
quarterly meetings with medium sized NSP’ (West Suburban,
Dear Valued Stakeholder,
I would like to thank you for taking time to respond to our 2012
Stakeholder Survey. The 48% response rate was excellent and
shows your interest in taking the time to provide the Victoria Taxi
Directorate (VTD) with important feedback.
The survey has enabled us to have a more accurate picture of
how you feel about the VTD. Specifically, the survey results have
provided us with detailed information regarding the VTD’s
communication levels and engagement with you.
Your feedback comes at a time when the Victorian Government
is undertaking a major review of the taxi and hire car industries.
To facilitate this, the Government established the Taxi Industry
Inquiry (TII) to make recommendations on industry reforms
which are yet to be finalised.
Following a comprehensive review being undertaken by the TII,
the VTD will transition into the Taxi Services Commission who
will assume the ongoing role of industry regulator and take your
feedback forward.
The Leadership Team and I have taken time to reflect on your
feedback and the themes that arise from it.
You have told us the way to enhance your engagement with us is
to increase the speed of responses to queries and continue to
communicate and maintain transparency around issues that
affect you.
We should also not overlook the areas you perceive the VTD
performing moderately well in: staff treating you well; and being
given the correct advice.
It is important to recognise that this is a journey – not a ‘quick
fix’ – and together we will not lose sight of the bigger picture.
From here we plan to:
Identify improvements that will have impact in the short
term
Develop an action plan on the key issues we need to
improve on
Follow through and communicate the results to you
The Leadership Team and I remain committed to improving the
way we engage and communicate with you.
Thanks again for your feedback!
Marnie Williams
General Manager
Victorian Taxi Directorate
Victorian Taxi Directorate Stakeholder Survey
2012 Results
Dandenong, Frankston, Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong etc) and
at least one visit a year to all NSP’s in the state. It is hoped
that this will bolster relationships and improve communications.
There was also feedback about ‘on road inspections’ by
our Transport Safety Officer’s around consistency, showing
respect, decent manners and notices for minor matters. As
a result, our Transport Safety & Compliance division is conducting
refresher training in regards to the correct application
of the operations manual and the consistent application
of relevant regulations and policy.
These are a subsection of some of the items in our action
plan, which we hope will address the views of industry participants.
We welcome your feedback on our progress towards
a more professional engagement with the taxi industry. We
will be conducting another survey next year, so will be keen
to improve on these results.
To those of you who responded to our survey this year
- thank you for your participation. We sent it to all industry
participants for whom we had e-details, so a greater number
of you should receive our email survey next year! D
Taxi Talk - Voice of the Taxi Industry October 2012 | 25
1
1
As a part of our commitment to the continuous improvement in
areas of stakeholder engagement and communication,
stakeholders were asked to complete a survey in April 2012.
Insync Surveys, a specialist survey firm was engaged by the VTD
to conduct the survey on its behalf.
The overall response rate for the survey was a very pleasing
48% (547 responses). This is a high response rate when
compared to results of other stakeholder surveys conducted by
Insync Surveys (30-35%).
Demographics
The majority of respondents were from greater metropolitan
Melbourne (78%) and have been interacting with the VTD for
10 years or more (37%).
The majority of the stakeholders were from the VTD regulated
industries and industry associations (63%).
40%
20%
0%
80%
60%
63%
37%
17%
20%
Stakeholder group
11%
9%
7%
6%
3% 1% 0%
VTD regulated Service Government Currently VTD Advocacy and Associated Registered Unspecified
industries + provide (Those
Taxi Driver / representative organisations Training
Industry who supply
Operator / groups
Organisations
Associations goods or
Fleet Forum or
services to the
DPTAC
VTD)
members
5%
15%
78%
Locality
How long have you been
interacting with VTD?
28%
Greater metropolitan
Melbourne
Country Victoria
Interstate
Less than 2 years
2-5 years
5-10 years
10+ years