Taxis.. /shakes head

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Rosaudio

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Last weekend I was luckily given the rare opportunity of job shadowing SAPS for a couple of hours at a certain police station here in Cape Town. I learnt a lot from my experience and have the greatest respect for these people and what they do. I could see first hand the effect they have on the community and they are a bunch of great people.

Anyway just before night time we stopped two police cars on the side of a main road near the station and pulled over 7 taxis. The stats were quite astonishing really.

Out of the 7, only 2 of the taxi's were allowed to drive off again without a fine/detainment.
4 of the taxis had a driver without a drivers license of which 2 of the taxi's were overloaded
1 taxi had a driver with a license but was completely overloaded.
1 of the drivers already had 6 fines which he happily pulled out for us :wtf:

2 of the drivers attempted to lie to the cops.. one about his age (which I actually pointed out to the officer writing the fine) and the other wouldn't co-operate in telling the truth at all so we detained him and brought him back to the station. He had a taxi full of people so when we told them we had to take the vehicle, there were a lot of pissed off people as you would imagine. They got their money back at least :D

This really showed that taxis are an extremely big problem on the roads today and more needs to be done to sort these people out. If 4 out of 7 taxi drivers are driving without a license, then you know things are messed up.

Anyway I was very fortunate to be shown all this, would love to go back and do it all again :) Thank you SAPS.
 
Hey stop it! It is not politically correct to highlight the problems with taxis in SA! Certain things are much better off, if left untouched - sadly.
 
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intel8080 said:
Hey stop it! It is not politically correct to highlight the problems with taxis in SA! Certain things are much better off, if left untouched - sadly.
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What are you talking about?

People bitch about them all the time.

And quite rightly so.
 
Well yeah, if we had proper punishment it might change. Taking them to the station & giving a R500 slap of the wrist doesn't work...its an acceptable risk for the taxi driver....he just drives 2x as reckless tomorrow to make up for the minor loss.

copacetic said:
What are you talking about?

People bitch about them all the time.

And quite rightly so.
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Sarcasm...


btw anybody know why insurance isn't compulsory in SA?
 
That's actually worse than I thought. I figured they would at least buy their license before driving a taxi... guess these guys are more thuggish than I thought.
 
I wish I could be involved in taking these clowns off our roads!! Would remove them ALL from the roads!!
 
intel8080 said:
Hey stop it! It is not politically correct to highlight the problems with taxis in SA! Certain things are much better off, if left untouched - sadly.
Click to expand...

You just made that up.

Anyways, after spending time in Manila with their jeepneys, when I came back to South Africa... I nearly hugged the first taxi I saw. Our dudes are amateurs compared to okes in real 3rd world countries. If you have traveled you will know our taxi`s are not that bad :D
 
Its good to see the cops are pulling over taxis, but last week that did not work out so nicely for me.

I came to work early (6am) and at 8:30am I took my car in for its yearly service. On the way to the garage, only 2k from my work, I passed a few cops that were pulling off taxis, it put a smile on my face. But the smile did not last long. As I passed the last cop car I started slacking off to stop at a traffic light and just as I came to a complete stop there was a loud thud as a taxi drove up my ass. He was probably staring at one of his fellow taxi drivers getting fined and did not see me stop.

Luckily the old Astra has a strong bumper and asides from nasty scratch marks and paint that came off the car is fine. The cops were supper quick to give the driver a good "uit kak" and took down our details. The passengers were really ticked off with the driver and took their money back. After 10 minutes I was back on the road again and actually felt bad for the stupid f-tard that weren't paying attention - right in front of the cops!

So I applaud them for the good job they are doing, but they can be a distraction.
 
I have ridden in taxis for about a year or so and these guys are maniacs but some are even worse then that and I think it boils down to the colour of the skin of the driver too. I have been in a coloured drivers taxi and a black drivers taxi and you get good drivers and bad drivers in both cases. Some taxis use side roads to avoid checkpoints and use their cellphones to warn other drivers so you know something is wrong.
 
A repeat offender should have his taxi crushed but that would start a war and the ANC are too bangbroek when it comes to their voter base.
This is why not a single African country will ever become a first world country or a major world power.
Wealth and prosperity (in a peaceful society) requires law and order.
 
Rouxenator said:
So I applaud them for the good job they are doing, but they can be a distraction.
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No one's fault other than the rubbernecking sheep. If they can't focus on the road, they shouldn't have a license.

Paul_S said:
A repeat offender should have his taxi crushed but that would start a war and the ANC are too bangbroek when it comes to their voter base.
This is why not a single African country will ever become a first world country or a major world power.
Wealth and prosperity (in a peaceful society) requires law and order.
Click to expand...

+e^22
 
Rouxenator said:
Its good to see the cops are pulling over taxis, but last week that did not work out so nicely for me.

I came to work early (6am) and at 8:30am I took my car in for its yearly service. On the way to the garage, only 2k from my work, I passed a few cops that were pulling off taxis, it put a smile on my face. But the smile did not last long. As I passed the last cop car I started slacking off to stop at a traffic light and just as I came to a complete stop there was a loud thud as a taxi drove up my ass. He was probably staring at one of his fellow taxi drivers getting fined and did not see me stop.

Luckily the old Astra has a strong bumper and asides from nasty scratch marks and paint that came off the car is fine. The cops were supper quick to give the driver a good "uit kak" and took down our details. The passengers were really ticked off with the driver and took their money back. After 10 minutes I was back on the road again and actually felt bad for the stupid f-tard that weren't paying attention - right in front of the cops!

So I applaud them for the good job they are doing, but they can be a distraction.
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Ah damn that must'v sucked! At least it was right in front of the cops though.. witnesses and all.

And at least it was only an Opel :D :p
 
:cool: ... considering the taxi had a bull bar I'd say Opel knows how to make a proper bumper at least, if nothing else.
 
I was thinking about the taxi problem the other day.

I actually think the government should scrap government subsidized buses - except for the Gautrain buses - and just use taxis.

Why? I know it sounds horrifying, but the taxis have a point in that they are private enterprise competing with government subsidized transport. They make their points EXTREMELY badly, but are right. Since the taxi industry is so well established and IMHO an important part of our culture, they must stay, and the buses must go.

But in return, the taxi industry needs to give itself over to much tighter scrutiny and regulation. First, everyone needs to be registered for VAT and income tax. Secondly, drivers need to be paid minimum wage. Taxi drivers drive like they do because if they dont, they dont get any money. That needs to stop. Third, safety and maintenance of vehicles needs to be made a much higher priority - if a taxi is found unsafe, the driver is not charged but the taxi association is. Perhaps the government could impound and repair the vehicle, and return it once the repairs are paid for and a fine is paid. If it is not collected, it is resold.
 
Ancalagon said:
I was thinking about the taxi problem the other day.

I actually think the government should scrap government subsidized buses - except for the Gautrain buses - and just use taxis.

Why? I know it sounds horrifying, but the taxis have a point in that they are private enterprise competing with government subsidized transport. They make their points EXTREMELY badly, but are right. Since the taxi industry is so well established and IMHO an important part of our culture, they must stay, and the buses must go.

But in return, the taxi industry needs to give itself over to much tighter scrutiny and regulation. First, everyone needs to be registered for VAT and income tax. Secondly, drivers need to be paid minimum wage. Taxi drivers drive like they do because if they dont, they dont get any money. That needs to stop. Third, safety and maintenance of vehicles needs to be made a much higher priority - if a taxi is found unsafe, the driver is not charged but the taxi association is. Perhaps the government could impound and repair the vehicle, and return it once the repairs are paid for and a fine is paid. If it is not collected, it is resold.
Click to expand...

Was this not what the Taxi Recapitalization was supposed to deal with? Old rundown taxis were traded in for new 20 seaters or something and there would be new rules governing them and what happened, they kicked up a stink. They once showed guys giving up their old taxi's for new ones then "poof" it all disappeared.

Taxi's are private yet offer a public service and they don't issue receipts and the money either goes into the taxi bosses pocket or in the owner/drivers pocket, you can bet they don't want some government official taking away some of their money.
 
If I controlled everything - this would be my taxi model:

Taxi Tickets - every taxi has a ticketing machine to receive tickets / OR a magnetic card thingy with a balance on it like the Gautrain. The tax is only legible for this device if the taxi is properly registered and is road worthy. Device linked to taxi driver.

Tickets are bought / money loaded through some central taxi authority.

The tickets/money used by the taxi is redeemable from some sort of central taxi authority - they pay taxes on behalf of said taxi. Income can only be paid into taxi bosses account and taxi driver must present valid drivers license to redeem money.

Taxi boss receives money - from which he pays taxi driver a fixed salary. He is able to tell how much moola the taxi driver is bringing in since every receipt can be traced back to the driver. If the driver is not performing he gets fired etc.

Demerit system must be implemented so if the driver gets too many fines - hes license is automatically suspended and he is no longer able to redeem money at central taxi authority.

LAW required all taxis must use ticket devices.

Ive put all of 10 seconds of thought into this so please mind the gaps.
 
waynegohl said:
Was this not what the Taxi Recapitalization was supposed to deal with? Old rundown taxis were traded in for new 20 seaters or something and there would be new rules governing them and what happened, they kicked up a stink. They once showed guys giving up their old taxi's for new ones then "poof" it all disappeared.

Taxi's are private yet offer a public service and they don't issue receipts and the money either goes into the taxi bosses pocket or in the owner/drivers pocket, you can bet they don't want some government official taking away some of their money.
Click to expand...

That was focused on simply swapping old and busted for new and shiny. But I dont think it fixes the essential problems - namely that it is unfair for the taxis to compete with the buses, taxi drivers have no incentive to drive carefully (not being paid anything fixed), and the taxi industry is largely unregulated.

Of course they would moan and perform if they were told they had to pay drivers decent wages and submit to regulation. But I think at least removing the buses would sweeten the deal for them somewhat, since it removes competition.

plus the government could subsidize certain routes that are not profitable, but necessary to keep things moving.
 
How many accidents a year are caused by taxis compared to busses? Granted, taxis do offer a service but the amount of laws being broken by these taxis is a problem. Even if it is regulated they will still compete for routes and passengers and this is a problem.
 
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