Strong medicine, negotiated by all stakeholders, has been prescribed to salvage the taxi industry, reports Karen Harverson
THE embattled taxi industry may be on the road to recovery following the interim report of the National Taxi Task Team (NTTT) which was presented to Transport Minister Mac Maharaj
The report’s recommendations — which could cost the government some R200-million to implement over a two-to-three-year period — outline ways to salvage an industry which epitomises black economic empowerment.
With its estimated 40 000 players, the taxi industry has a capital base of about R15- billion in rolling stock — the most significant black ownership of assets in South Africa
Three core issues — the regulation and control of the industry; restructuring and formalisation of the industry; and economic assistance — were identified as the most urgent by the NTTT which used a participative framework to include all stakeholders.
NTTT chairman Dipak Patel says the eight- month-long process, which cost some R3,5- million, included the holding of 35 public hearings throughout the nine provinces, from remote Kuruman in the Northern Cape to densely populated Johannesburg.
“The hearings fulfilled a two-fold purpose — – to ensure that the real issues affecting the people in the industry were heard, and that the findings had a high degree of support as a result of the widespread participation,” says
The major thrust of the recommend-ations requires setting up co-operatives in the industry. “Structures through which the government could channel assistance in an accountable way.”
No individual or company would be precluded from becoming a member of a co-op which could form a base for bargaining power, and ownership of facilities which are regarded as economic inputs for the industry, such as petrol, tyres, parts, and maintenance
In the same way co-ops regulated the once unsophisticated agricultural industry, so could the taxi industry be regulated with membership incentives used to bring players into the fold.
Some of the incentives being considered for co-ops are the awarding of 25 petrol licences — already set aside by government for such a purpose — as well as the setting up of a financial guarantee fund to carry some of the loan risk which forces financial institutions to charge taxi operators the highest interest rates in the business (11 percent above
Similarly, an insurance fund could be set up to help reduce the high insurance premiums being charged. “Once recommendations are in place to regulate and manage the industry, the risk perception of insurance companies of it is likely to improve, reducing the initial burden on government,” explains Patel.
The amendment of existing permits and the withdrawal of certain permits will also be undertaken and an audit of all routes to determine capacity will be data captured. “We envisage vehicles becoming route specific and so numbered or colour-coded,” adds Patel.
He believes implementation of some of the proposals could begin as soon as February 1996 following feedback from the Transport Ministry early next year.
“It is imperative that all players begin to develop the capacity requirements needed to implement these proposals successfully.”