Ministerial Statement: Late night taxi surcharge to be extended statewide

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
06/04/2008

Late night taxi surcharge to be extended statewide

The $2 late night taxi surcharge which already applies in most major Queensland cities will be extended throughout the state from tomorrow.

Minister for Transport John Mickel said the decision to apply the surcharge statewide was an extra incentive for taxi drivers.

He said the surcharge was needed to counter a serious shortage of drivers, especially in the early morning hours.

"There is a national shortage of taxi drivers and we are feeling it here in Queensland just as much as any other state," Mr Mickel said.

"It means taxis are sitting in depots when they should be on the streets providing services to Queenslanders.

"In particular, drivers have been opting out of the midnight to 5am period, leaving a severe shortage of services for people such as shift workers and late night revellers,'' Mr Mickel said.

He said the $2 surcharge was introduced a few years ago in Brisbane and then extended to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville and Cairns.

"It proved to be an effective incentive to drivers to sign on for those shifts, therefore we are extending it to all areas of the state," Mr Mickel said.

He said the $2 surcharge was applied to the flag fall for each trip between midnight and 5am every night of the year except Anzac Day.

April 6, 2008

[Huggies]

I have no problems with the extra few dollars for the flag fall as these guys put up with a lot of trouble especially with drunk people. It's not an easy job especially when everyone else is having a good time.