DRIVE A2B July 2018

EDITORIAL
OCCUPANCY
RATES
NOSEDIVING
The drop in demand for taxis is most likely due to passengers switching
to new ridesharing services, reports the Essential Services Commission.
HOW MUCH IS
ENOUGH?
May 2018 saw the number of
CPVs accredited by the TSC rise
by a further 3300 vehicles. This
gives Victoria a total of 34,879
CPVs able to ply for the right to
transport passengers from point A
to point B.
In the recently released draft
report into Maximum Taxi
Fares by the Essential Services
Commission it states:
“The number of trips taken in taxis
in the metro zone has declined
significantly since 2014 when fares
were last changed. Our analysis of
trip data shows that unbooked taxi
trip numbers have declined every
year between 2014 to 2016. We
estimate that between the fourth
quarters of 2014 and 2016, the
number of trips in unbooked taxis
decreased by 17 per cent.”
Historically, the number of
taxi trips has increased as the
population and economy have
grown. Melbourne’s population
increased by five per cent and the
Victorian economy grew by seven
per cent between 2014 and 2016.
Based on past patterns we would
also expect the number of taxi
trips to increase. However, we
have observed a decrease. As
fares for taxis did not increase
between 2014 and 2017, the drop
in demand for taxis is most likely
due to passengers switching to
new ridesharing services.
The report also stated:
“Average occupancy rates
decreased from 29 per cent in
2014 to 27 per cent in 2016. This
shows that taxi drivers were
spending more time without a
passenger in 2016 than in 2014”.
Now whilst this is not new news
to us, it is somewhat encouraging
that the ESC has the data to
actually prove what many of us
have been saying for the past four
years.
NEW REGULATIONS
With the advent of the regulations
supporting the Commercial
Passenger Vehicle Industry Act
2017 to come into affect from
4 DRIVE A2B magazine · July 2018