A Queenstown cabbie believes he can influence changes to the rip-off practices ruining his industry’s reputation in his new role.
Queenstown Taxis’ managing director Grant Scannell last month took over as president of the Small Passenger Service Association (SPSA), formerly the New Zealand Taxi Federation.
‘‘I really feel like I can make a change and the association will make a change,’’ he says.
He and SPSA are urging the government to change the 2017 legislation that deregulated the industry, paving the way for independent cabbies — known locally as ‘scab cabs’ — to regularly overcharge passengers.
Given this resort, he suggests, probably experiences the worst problems per capita, ‘‘Queenstown’s going to be a big part of proving that the legislation changes didn’t work,’’ Scannell says.
Along with rip-off pricing, he points to passenger safety as a big issue, referring to anecdotal evidence of independent cabbies seeking sexual favours in lieu of payment.
Scannell says incidents of sexual assault and harassment by drivers NZ-wide reportedly rose more than three times between 2016 and 2021.
He met Transport Minister Michael Wood at last month’s SPSA conference, and is seeing him again later this month.
While saying the Minister’s ‘‘definitely approachable’’, he believes he’s unaware of how bad the situation’s got.
‘‘At our meeting [this month] we’re going to bring a lot more to his attention.’’
Scannell says he’s hoping Queenstown cabbies will launch a ‘fare’s fair’ campaign before Christmas.
‘‘We’ve spoken to the police and the mayor and also Queenstown Airport.
‘‘You can’t price-fix, but what we’re proposing is we advertise we have a reasonable fare.’’
Cabbies might state, for example, their estimated fare from the airport to the CBD is $45 to $50, ‘‘so if you walk out to an independent and they say it’s $100, you know it’s not a fair fare’’.
‘‘What we want to do is see how it works here, then propose we look at it right around the country.’’
Scannell says another issue he’ll continue raising relates to blitzes conducted by the police’s commercial vehicle investigation unit (CVIU).
CVIU officers check small passenger vehicle operators are operating legally when they visit town.
‘‘Every time they come, most of the independents bolt.
‘‘They need to come incognito, so with no uniforms or anything like that — if they’d done that, I think they’d have a better idea of what’s going on.’’
Scannell stresses Queenstown does have good independent cabbies, ‘‘but it only takes a few to ruin the reputation of the whole industry, and that’s what’s happening at the moment’’.
