Victorian Taxi Association dump PR company

THE Victorian taxi saga is still ongoing, with the Melbourne PR company behind YourTaxi’s embarrassing stuff-up dumped.

A taxi rank at Melbourne airport. Cabs.

THE PR company behind a campaign that was an #epicfail has been dumped by the Victorian Taxi Association.

Melbourne’s Ellis Jones Agency, who managed the YourTaxis campaign for less than a week, has gone into hiding since the latest Remembrance Day debacle.

The agency posted a tweet, offending war veterans and widows.

.@yourtaxis Your tweet was around 4pm. Here’s my 5.49 screen grab. Your apology lied. You didn’t delete immediately. pic.twitter.com/cBXqAwe9kB

— DeeMadigan (@deemadigan) November 11, 2015

Victorian Taxi Association chief executive David Samuel said the campaign launched to compete with ride-sharing service Uber did not go as planned.

“Our intention was to engage with the community and open a direct dialogue with customers about their experiences using Victorian taxi services so we could make genuine changes to improve the experience, safety and security for our customers,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the YourTaxis campaign concept and its delivery did not match our intention.”

The campaign encouraged the community to share their taxi experiences but many took the opportunity to post about sexual assault, racism, homophobia and violence.

It was labelled a social media disaster, which was at the hands of Ellis Jones Agency.

Frustrated passengers also posted about stinky cabbies who did not know where they were going.

One even said their taxi smelt like a wookiee’s armpit.

@yourtaxis It smelled like a wookiee's armpit. I was preached at about how Somali immigrants are destroying Australia for 25 min. #YourTaxis

— Leigh Stillard (@LeighStillard) November 9, 2015

Cab driver ordering me out of the car when I told him to keep his hands on the wheel and not eat his sandwiches while driving #yourtaxis

— Suzanne Carbone (@SuzanneCarbone) November 10, 2015

“We were aware of many of the issues that passengers face but the campaign concept and delivery showed us the true extent of their concerns,” Mr Samuel said.

“We take full responsibility for the campaign and will be undertaking a full review of our strategy.

“As a result we have made the decision to part ways with our agency.”

Mr Samuel said the Victorian Taxi Association would create an action plan to tackle issues exposed by customers on Twitter and the information will be used to improve taxi services.

“I have asked for an immediate audit of the initiative to ensure that all passenger issues are captured and that all our future actions match out intentions,” he said.

Ellis Jones Agency would not respond to calls from News.com.au.