THE taxi business is still a tough business despite some industry leaders saying the tide has turned in its favour.

City Beat spoke to Black & White Cabs chief executive Greg Webb who noted the industry was fighting back successfully from Covid-19 and the impact from Uber and other rideshare apps. Webb says owner drivers could earn up to $20,000 a month as the industry recovered. But one retired driver says good taxi drivers are lucky to make $10,000 amid a 90 per cent plummet in the value of taxi licences. 

Owners of electric cars are cashing in on demand for battery-powered vehicles following a spike in fuel prices.

Second-hand prices for in-demand electric cars can outstrip new prices by $30,000 or more as green customers look to jump the queue for a new car.

Lloyds Auctions reports that second-hand examples of the Tesla Model 3 are selling for more than their new price.

Lee Hames, chief operations officer for Lloyds Auctions, said the Model 3 sells for about $68,000, and that buyers had already bid up to $73,000 in an online auction with several hours to go. 

Australia should set up a US-style investigation body to examine road incidents involving automated vehicles, two experts say, after a woman who claimed to be driving a Tesla in autopilot mode collided with a nurse boarding a tram in Melbourne this week.

With partially self-driving cars increasingly prominent across the country, the experts recommend an approach that gathers information on how much technology or human error contributed to an accident, allowing manufacturers to improve safety.

Compensation payments for NSW taxi licence owners whose livelihoods took a hit from Uber could increase from $20,000 to $200,000 under a proposal being developed by the NSW government.

​The $1bn package, developed in consultation with the industry, will be considered by Cabinet’s powerful expenditure review committee.

The dramatic increase in payments would be funded by an extension to the $1 passenger service levy, currently applied to every trip in a taxi or ride-sharing car.

Soaring petrol prices have persuaded countless Melburnians to ditch cars altogether in favour of two-wheeled transport.

Unleaded fuel has recently crept past two dollars a litre, with a full tank from metro petrol stations often costing more than $100.

The NSW Taxi Council has requested all the Taxi Licence Owners in NSW to reach out to their Local Member of Parliament in NSW to sign the NSW Taxi Industry Pledge in support of fair and proper compensation for all Taxi Licence Owners in NSW. 

Taxi Licence Owners in NSW have lost the value of their NSW Taxi Licences since the NSW Government changed the rules governing the Taxi Industry in 2016. Transport for NSW is preparing a Bill on further reforms in the Point to Point Transport Industry to be introduced into the NSW Parliament in early 2022. The Bill proposes to cancel all existing Taxi Licences with inadequate compensation, issue unlimited annual licences for a small fee, abolish operating areas, and deregulate fares. 

​Australia’s taxi industry is urging state and federal governments to ease pressure on cab drivers paying for soaring petrol prices out of their own pockets by allowing for an increase in regulated cab fares and slashing the fuel excise.

While ridehailing services such as Uber and Didi have implemented new surcharges to pass on higher fuel costs onto passengers, drivers in the traditional taxi industry have been forced to absorb them because cab fares are based on rates regulated by government agencies that differ in every state.​​

For years, self-driving car technology has remained tantalizingly just beyond the horizon. Bold predictions notwithstanding, fully automated vehicles still haven’t appeared in showrooms. But the technology appears poised for a leap forward in 2022. 

Companies including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Honda are bringing so-called Level 3 AVs [Automated Vehicles] to market that will let drivers take their hands off the wheel under specific conditions, and virtually every major auto manufacturer is testing self-driving systems. 

AS if waiting forever for a taxi isn’t bad enough – Territorians will have to wait up to five years for the government to do anything about it.

A review conducted last year and released days after the Sunday Territorian published a report about extended wait times for taxis at Darwin Airport proposes a ballot-driven release of a “set number” of taxi licences in Darwin and Alice Springs – over the next five years.

The review also recommends “core cosmetic requirements” for taxis – meaning a standard of cleanliness will be worked through with the sector.