Lisa Mayoh: Taxi price gouging crisis is driving customers away
Taxi drivers negotiating set fees with passengers for trips instead of using their meters are holding cash-strapped Aussies held to ransom—something has to change, writes Lisa Mayoh.
Opinion
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It will have to be a pretty extraordinary event to get me into the city this festive season.
In a classic case of bad timing, just as the party season kicks off in the city we’re all being encouraged to keep alive, the fact is it’s near impossible to go anywhere – because you can’t get home.
On Saturday night, an Uber home from a concert at Homebush was quoting $170, for a trip that should have been $60 at the most. Damn those inconvenient surge prices.
But worse was to come. Taxi after taxi drove past, lights on, ready to mingle. We’d wave them down and they’d stop, doors locked, windows opened ever so slightly.
“Where are you headed?” they’d all ask.
When I’d tell them where, they would type it into Uber, see the price was $170 and look up from their phones.
“$170 flat rate,” they’d offer.
No thanks, I said, not quite so politely. Cab after cab would do the same, and drive away when I told them what they were doing was not only reprehensible but illegal. So, what are you to do?
No taxis. No Ubers. If you aren’t near a train station or bus stop, how on earth are you meant to get home? Walk?
Finally, a decent taxi driver stopped and did the right thing – he let us in, turned the meter on as he should and got us safely home, for amazingly, what it should have cost in the first place.
A few weeks before the same thing happened, only this time I had my 10-year-old daughter with me. We’d seen Cinderella on a school night and it was late.
All we wanted to do was go home and get into bed. Again, Uber wanted hundreds of dollars for the 12-minute trip. And cab after cab refused to stop unless we played by their rules. No meter.
Channel 10’s Sarah Harris stood next to us, in the same boat.
“How can they do that? They do it all the time, it’s ridiculous,” she said angrily.
It is ridiculous. And it’s stressful. My mind raced a million miles an hour as to how I was going to get my very sleepy child home. And, to be honest, I won’t put myself through it again.
There are lots of rumours circulating Melbourne at the moment about where, when and why Uber has its surges. I’ve heard there is a driver WhatsApp group where they sit at the airport with their apps turned off, so the world thinks there are no drivers about and prices surge. Then a plane lands and boom – sky-high fares, ripe for the taking.
I understand supply and demand and I don’t begrudge anyone trying to make a buck, especially at a time when we face the highest cost of living our generation has ever seen.
But 200 per cent? Imagine going to a restaurant on a public holiday, and being told the 10 per cent surcharge is now 20 times that. Would you stay? I wouldn’t.
It’s not okay. It’s price gouging at its worst and it’s praying on the vulnerable. Cash-strapped Aussies held to ransom, essentially forced to get into a stranger’s car at five times what it should cost. And, for much of the population living week to week, that’s impossible.
They can blame petrol prices and inflation. No overseas students. Putin, Trump – hell, they can blame the tooth fairy – but I blame them.
Profit or not, it’s the right thing to do the right thing.
So I absolutely won’t be taking the risk again. And that’s sad because city businesses are crying out for patrons, who are themselves deservedly excited to celebrate the end of a long and arduous year. If ever we need an Uber, it’s now.
Something has to change, and urgently. Drivers are out of line and passengers are angry.
So angry that, next time, we’ll just stay home.
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