Taxilink Directors visit Singapore to study Taxi Industry.

Taxilink Directors Harry Katsiabanis and Bruno D’Amico have recently visited Singapore and visited many taxi related companies including:

Comfort Delgro Taxis, Smart Taxis and the Singaporean Taxi Academy.

There are many major differences between the Melbourne and the Singaporean model.

In Singapore all the Taxis are owned by the taxi companies and the industry is deregulated in relation to the number of taxis but is heavily regulated by the government in all other areas.

Singapore is a very small place and compared to Melbourne from a geographical size is non-comparable.

Singapore has over 23,000 taxis with an occupancy rate in excess of 70% whilst Melbourne has 4339 taxis with an occupancy rate at around 30%.

Singaporean taxi drivers earn about 4 times the income a sales assistant would earn in a store in Singapore

Imagine if we were to equate this to Australian Income earnings it would mean that the taxi driver would earn in excess of $150,000 Per Annum.

If our drivers earned this income I don’t think we would struggle to attract drivers

Car ownership in Singapore is very prohibitive as car ownership is discouraged by the government with the heavy taxes.

We as taxi operators brought back many lessons that we witnessed and experienced in the Singaporean taxi community.

The most impressive experience was the one at the Singaporean Taxi Academy; the passion and the knowledge that this training centre provided was first class.

We will endeavour to build a similar academy here in Melbourne and we believe with the lessons we learned and the experiences we shared we will be closer to delivering this outcome.

The team in Singapore at the taxi academy have extended an invitation to have our senior trainers visit them and spend time with them to learn from their experiences.

We will certainly be taking them up on this offer in the near future.

The most interesting fact that we discovered at the taxi academy is that they are planning to reduce the course from 90 hours to 60 hours of which 40 odd hours will be spent on knowledge of roads and landmarks.

We in Melbourne are going the other way and will be increasing our training to 117 odd hours and normally charging twice the Singaporean fees!!!

Although many lessons can be drawn from the Singaporean Taxi Industry it would be naive to compare the Singaporean environment to Melbourne and even more naive to compare the two taxi industries

If you wish to know more about our Singaporean experiences than please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

TaxiLink/ Chisholm Partnership.

Taxilink is pleased to announce that a new partnership agreement has been entered into with Chisholm to create the Australian Taxi Academy.

The Australian Taxi Academy will be housed at TaxiLink head office in North Road Huntingdale and will provide Taxi Driver Training as regulated by the Department of Transport.

The training will be delivered in 2 convenient locations Huntingdale (SE of Melbourne) and at Brunswick by our other partners Ambassador Taxis (North of Melbourne).

Taxilink is very proud to have developed an association with Chisholm and believes with the Taxilink team experience coupled with the resources of an education centre as the Chisholm institute we will deliver first class training to the Taxi Industry.

The team will consist of 10 certified trainers that will be able to provide flexibility in the hours that the training is been offered which will include night classes and weekend classes.

As the Taxi Academy will operate as a not for profit company we will in turn be able to provide subsidised taxi driver training and deliver value to the industry.

We are hoping to be able to provide classes from March 2012 as we are awaiting the final approval by the VTD.

How to Buy a Taxi Licence in Melbourne?

The Taxi Industry in Melbourne is regulated by the Victorian Taxi Directorate (Section of the Department of Transport).

There are rules and regulation pertaining to the purchase of Taxi Licences.

According to the VTD web site there are 4,339 Taxi Licences( including 506 Wheel Chair Accessible Taxis WAT)

Of these 4,339 there are another 200 Licences that have a life span of 10 years as of 2010.

The Licences that are most commonly traded are known as MT Licences (Metropolitan Taxi Licences) and there are only 3633 of these type of licences.

Ownership of one of these licences entitles the bearer to either operate their own taxi and engage in passenger transport or alternatively the owner is able to assign their licence to a taxi operator.

According to the VTD most of the Taxi Licences in Melbourne are assigned to operators.

One of these operators is as our company TaxiLink.

Competition between operators is very high for these licences as there is a limited supply.

According to the VTD web site the market value in December 2011 for a MT Taxi Licence was $484,250.

Taxi Licences are usually bought and sold through Taxi Brokers and the VTD publishes a list of accredited Taxi Brokers.

TaxiLink is an accredited Taxi Broker and regarded as an Industry Leader as its Director is also a Licenced Estate Agent.

In order to purchase a Licence the buyer must be accredited by the VTD as an accredited operator.

In order to qualify as an accredited operator an application needs to be completed and submitted to the VTD.

The application requires the applicants to complete a National Police check to demonstrate they are suitable and also requires a certificate to be completed by a CPA Accountant demonstrating the applicant has the financial capacity to own and operate a Taxi.

Accreditation also requires the applicant to have experience in the Taxi Industry as an operator.

If you do not have this experience than the VTD will normally direct you to complete the Taxi Operators accredited course that is conducted by the Victorian Taxi Association.

The other alternative would be to nominate another person that would qualify to become the “Responsible Person” this person would need to either be currently accredited or demonstrate to the VTD they have the knowledge and experience to undertake this responsibility.

If you are intending to become a Taxi Investor/Operator than the more information you can gather the better suited you will be to make an informed decision.

For all your enquiries please contact the TaxiLink Office on 03 95438700 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Click the below link to see Taxi Link on Channel 9 - 28/11/2011

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=228432263893576