New South Wales,
Australia — When Chris Cameron phones a cab, he
expects he won't fit into the car the taxi company sends.
After the taxi arrives, the 2.03-metre tall 24-year-old
expects to bang his head on the roof. He expects to have
an argument with the driver about his feet being
squashed. And he expects to pay for the privilege. There
are plenty of war stories about Sydney cabs but Cameron
can top most, facing a battle every time he wants to go
to the movies or a footy game.
Cameron, who is a ventilated
quadriplegic, controls his electric wheelchair with his
chin. Although he only sits 150 centimetres high in his
chair, he can't comfortably fit into most
wheelchair-accessible taxis, which - like wheelchairs
themselves - come in varying shapes and sizes. Only the
bus-like "maxi taxi" can fit him in.
His partner, Debbie Patterson, says
other wheelchair taxis are frequently sent after Cameron
books a cab over the phone, with the drivers operating
"under the mistaken belief that they can make him
fit".
"I have lost count of the number of
times his head has hit the roof of the vehicle because
the driver operating the hoist isn't paying attention
while raising the chair," she says. "Similarly drivers
are often surly about taking out seats so that his feet
aren't squashed."
Injured 14 months ago playing
rugby, Cameron is still at the Prince of Wales hospital,
and looks forward to opportunities to go out. He normally
waits about an hour for a taxi, but says even if he sets
aside two hours there's no guarantee of a ride. Cameron
isn't alone. A NSW Government inquiry has found a
shortage of wheelchair taxis, leaving users facing long
delays - if they come at all. The shortage of vehicles -
there are 451 wheelchair cabs in NSW, about 7 per cent of
the total fleet - is despite Government incentives to
push the networks to provide such taxis among their
fleets.
Conventional taxi plates can cost
up to $440,000 in NSW, according to a report from the
Ministry of Transport's Wheelchair Accessible Taxi
Taskforce, but wheelchair plates cost only $1000 a year
in lease fees to operate in Sydney, Newcastle and
Wollongong.
A special booking system for
wheelchair users is run by the taxi networks. But some
wheelchair taxi users complain it is unreliable, forcing
them to make private arrangements with taxi drivers they
are comfortable with. "You spend half your life sitting
in a gutter somewhere waiting for a taxi to come" says
Ross Turner, the attendant care co-ordinator at the
support group ParaQuad. "I don't rely on [the booking
service] to get me a taxi."
At the heart of the problem,
according to many in the industry, is money. "What we do
know is that the drivers of wheelchair taxis aren't
making any money from wheelchair work," says Taxi Drivers
Association spokesman Michael Jools. To make money they
often take able-bodied passengers, including big party
groups.
The greatest problem, says Jools,
is that drivers often have to travel long distances to
pick up a wheelchair passenger who has booked over the
phone, and they aren't making any money getting
there.
The chairman of the task force,
John Whelan, agrees that one of the causes of the
"paucity of supply" is that drivers aren't paid enough to
take wheelchair passengers. "It's clear we need
incentives for drivers to do this work," he says. The
taskforce is considering imposing a levy on all taxi
trips to generate some extra money to fund improvements
to the wheelchair service.
One solution is introducing a
"universal" cab to Sydney that would take anyone
regardless of whether they were in a wheelchair or not.
"It's the simplest way ahead because you don't have to
[have different] plates. You get improved service
for everybody, not just people in wheelchairs but older
people, young mums with prams. It has a better appeal,"
Whelan says.
But the NSW Taxi Council rejects
the idea. "Why would you triple the cost of each vehicle
to service 2 per cent of the population when they are
being well-serviced by the current system?" says a
spokeswoman, Tracey Cain.
Dear Editor,
The Taxi council is
deliberately misleading about wheelchair taxis. Industry
figures show that services are so bad that 80% of users
ignore the official booking system and make private
arrangements.
It's not uncommon for
people in wheelchairs to wait two hours or more or for
wheelchair taxis simply not to turn up. And they are not
telling the truth about the costs of converting cabs to
wheelchair access.
The industry itself
provided figures to the Human Rights Commission showing
that, at most, conversion adds 30% to the cost of the
vehicle (maybe $30,000) but the operator saves up to 97%
of the cost of a licence. That's a saving of up to
$430,000. Do the arithmetic, Taxi council. We have a
legal right to access taxi services.
Dougie Herd
Executive Officer
Physical Disability Council of New South Wales
