Hard luck taxi life

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
A YARRA Valley taxi driver finds it difficult to satisfy his customer’s needs because the taxi conditions in the valley are so bad.
Rik Leigh, who has been driving a taxi in the Warburton Highway area for three months now, said the pay was poor, there were not enough drivers to cover the area, and waiting times could lead to customers leaving the pick-up point.
He said there was also the problem of base operators making promises they couldn’t keep, problems with the country taxi rules, and being abused by customers because the system doesn’t work.
“I appreciate and understand the frustration of customers and hoteliers but I don’t think they understand what we have to put up with,” he said.
Mr Leigh said he sometimes worked 16-hour shifts and he was the only taxi driver on the Warburton Highway after midnight on a Friday night.
“There are also early mornings where I’ve had to cover from Steels Creek to Yarra Junction and Powelltown,” he said.
Mr Leigh said the turnaround of drivers was high, and he said it was common to see drivers leave after a few weeks because the pay was poor.
“Most people have lost confidence in the service. They say to me ‘Thank God we’ve got a night driver in the valley at last’,” he said.
Mr Leigh said the minimum waiting time for a country taxi was at least half an hour, given the distance to get to a customer, and often enough drivers found no-one there.
“The base operators make promises they can’t keep, but people won’t stick around for at least that half hour,” he said.
Mr Leigh said one job could last for up to two hours depending where he was, where he had to pick up the next customer and where he had to drop them off.
“I had one girl who waited in Warburton East for four hours, where I had picked someone up from there to take them down to Yarra Junction, and this girl wanted to do the same thing.
The worst part was on our screen we only get one job at a time, we don’t know how many people are waiting, or how long they were waiting. Maybe the customers could have doubled up and split the fare,” he said.
Mr Leigh said the country taxi drivers had to return to Wandin before the computer would show a new fare.
“It’s one vicious circle. If more people were being served by more taxis maybe people would use them more. I’d rather have a drunk in the taxi than know a drunk person is going to try and drive home.”