What’s the Problem ? ACT Labor Government exploitative behaviour

The ACT Labor Government has wrongly:

• flooded the market with their own taxi plates. 
• dropped the annual lease rates for taxi plates from$20K down to $5K
• devalued ACT Perpetual Taxi Licences by more than $200,000+ in just three years by not regulating rideshare vehicle numbers.

When the annual lease fee for taxi plates is significantly reduced, its goal was to encourage a take-up of leased plates, however it impacts on the market value of taxi licence “plates” was virtually destroyed overnight.

As new Government Plates are released in the market the equivalent number of plates are being forced off the roads that are owned by members of the ACTTPOA. These taxi plates are the primary income of the majority of our retired members – NOW THEY HAVE NOTHING.

Every time the ACT Government releases new taxi plates onto the already overcrowded market they force members of the ACTTPOA out of the market. This has happened several times, and the ACT Government is fully aware of the damages they have caused.

They intend to release a further 35 taxi plates by the end of March.

THIS IS NOT AN UBER ISSUE. THIS IS A GOVERNMENT ISSUE.

The ACT Government has been responsible for major changes to the taxi industry, and over the past three years they have used the introduction of Uber and other ride sharing services as a scapegoat for the problems that they created in the taxi industry.

These problems are not a result of Uber entering the market.

• They ARE a result of the ACT Government allowing ride sharing services and the ACT taxi industry to compete without first creating an even playing field.
• They ARE a result of the ACT Government making rash, uninformed decisions about the cost and value of taxi plates.
• They ARE a result of the ACT Government inviting their citizens to invest in the public transport industry, then undercutting those same citizens at every opportunity and forcing them back out of the market.

ACT Government Ministers Andrew Barr, Gordon Ramsay and Shane Rattenbury are responsible for signing off each and every time new taxi plates are released on the market. They are fully aware of the actions that are being taken, and the damages these actions have caused.

PLATE OWNERS HAVE NO VOICE

The ACTTPOA aims to represent the interests of an incredibly vulnerable group of people who do not have the energy or the insight to speak for themselves.

Most members of the ACTTPOA are elderly people, some speak limited English, and many are unable to take a stand for themselves in this difficult situation. Without the ability to understand extensive government economic and policy reports taxi plate owners have no way of fighting for the justice they are owed.

ACT Taxi Plate Owners have been burdened with major financial and emotional strain. Their life savings have gone into an investment which is now worthless as a result of conscious decisions made by ACT Government Ministers.

commercial impact and disregard for ACT Taxi Plate Owners apart from the financial counselling advice offered. It has done this in a series of steps which have ignored the direct submissions and input from plate owners, which are the biggest personal investors in the ACT Taxi Plate scheme.

ACT GOVERNMENT DESTROYING LIVES

• A combined loss of $68 million
• Over 1000 people wondering if they can afford to feed their families
• Severe mental health impacts
• The destruction of an entire industry that was once very sustainable