ANYONE who catches taxis in Sydney soon learns three things: fares are not cheap, cab availability is boom and bust, and taxi drivers will tell you how hard it is to make a living. They are not exaggerating. For most drivers, it is difficult to extract a living wage.
ANYONE who catches taxis in Sydney soon learns three things: fares are not cheap, cab availability is boom and bust, and taxi drivers will tell you how hard it is to make a living. They are not exaggerating. For most drivers, it is difficult to extract a living wage.
A modern-day Charles Dickens would find a wealth of material in the Sydney taxi industry. The average take-home pay of a cabbie is $11 an hour, well below the minimum wage of $15.50. Their average annual income is $29,000 for working a year of 50-hour shifts. Only 3 per cent of full-time drivers receive their entitlements to annual leave, superannuation and sick leave. Drivers carry the bulk of the daily financial risk. They also bear the brunt of any misadventures. Many drivers are migrants, doing a job most Australians, for obvious reasons, do not want.
The figures quoted are from a survey by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, set against a request by the NSW Taxi Drivers Association for the state government to impose a 20 per cent loading on fares at weekends, matching the night surcharge that applies from 10pm to 6am.
Yet if wages and conditions are so poor, and the average operator makes a profit of less than $5000 a year, why is the average market price for an unrestricted Sydney taxi licence - as listed by AMB, a taxi and finance broker - $430,000?
Someone in the system is doing very well for themselves. The rewards just aren't trickling down to those who put in the hard grind.
It turns out that with the average taxi bringing in $75,000 a year in fares, many of the 3500 owner-operators are willing to work long hours for a low hourly return. Once again, migrants play an increasingly important role as owner-operators. In effect, taxi travel is being subsidised by the many owners and drivers willing to work for less than the minimum wage.
We see no way around the current system of incentive-based payments to drivers. Every taxi is a small business, so paying drivers a set wage would be a recipe for inefficiency. The NSW government, rather than simply slugging taxi customers with a fare rise, should make the system more equitable. A good starting point would be to ensure the proportion of Sydney's 20,000 taxi drivers who get their legal entitlement to superannuation and annual leave rises well above the existing 3 per cent.
Hiding behind a wall of secrecy
THIRTY-ODD years ago, a senior official complained to Malcolm Fraser that the Prime Minister's Department couldn't get on with the real business of government because Mr Fraser insisted the department reply to each public query. ''After all,'' the administrator whined to the PM, ''they are only members of the public.''
Sir Humphrey Appleby, it seems, is alive and well, not just in the Commonwealth public service but in global, state and local domains indeed practically wherever members of the public want to know something pertinent to their lives. Information is power and the powerful aren't about to relinquish it just because the public wants to assert a proprietorial right.
To this end, bureaucracies have grown within bureaucracies, dwarfing the so-called public affairs units charged with disseminating information in the Fraser era. These units go by several oxymorons - communications, public relations, public affairs, information. Their central purpose is to stop the public from knowing and they have grown like wild lantana in their opaqueness and obstinacy.
A second stream of this same purpose has been the decay of parliamentary question times, loosening the rein on government accountability. It's an offshoot of the arrogance of incumbency and is reflected in the derision shown by government in ignoring its undertaking to answer questions taken on notice at Senate hearings.
Not every answer can be at the fingertips of ministers and officials facing these hearings. It is sensible they be taken on notice so that Senate committees are not misled, but the December 9 deadline came and went. And in this case? Fewer than half the thousands of questions taken on notice in the October round of Senate estimates hearings have been answered.
Immigration and Citizenship, for instance, is yet to answer any of its 423 questions on notice. Infrastructure and Transport, as well as AusAID, have been equally silent, and several other big departments have been only slightly more prompt.
It's not as if the challenge is impossible, either. Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Foreign Affairs and Trade and Regional Australia and Local Government each answered their full lists.
The Prime Minister's spokesman left the matter up to individual departments, suggesting they have a free rein in deciding whether and when to respond. That suggests issues of public accountability are at the whim of individual ministers and their bureaucrats, not determined by a central principle. No wonder transparency has slipped so far.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
What are typical Sydney taxi driver wages and how do they compare to the minimum wage?
According to an IPART survey cited in the article, the average take‑home pay for a Sydney taxi driver is about $11 an hour, well below the minimum wage quoted in the piece of $15.50. The survey also notes an average annual income of roughly $29,000 for drivers working a year of 50‑hour weeks.
Why do unrestricted Sydney taxi licences trade for around $430,000 when drivers earn so little?
The article notes an apparent disconnect: AMB lists the average market price for an unrestricted Sydney taxi licence at about $430,000, while many owner‑operators earn little profit. It explains that average fares are roughly $75,000 a year, but many owner‑operators accept low hourly returns and long hours, and licence values reflect scarcity and historic valuation rather than current driver take‑home pay.
How much revenue does an average Sydney taxi generate each year in fares?
The article states the average taxi brings in about $75,000 a year in fares. That figure helps explain why licences have high market values even though driver net earnings can be low.
What does the article say about owner‑operators’ profits and the economics of running a taxi?
The article reports many owner‑operators make very little profit—often less than $5,000 a year after costs—and are willing to work long hours for low hourly returns. It frames each taxi as a small business where drivers and owners carry most financial risk.
What is the role of incentive‑based payments in the taxi industry and why aren’t drivers paid set wages?
The article argues that incentive‑based payments are central because every taxi operates as a small business; paying drivers a fixed wage instead of incentives would, it suggests, create inefficiencies. As a result, driver earnings depend heavily on fares and incentive structures rather than guaranteed wages.
How common are entitlements like superannuation and annual leave for Sydney taxi drivers?
The article highlights that entitlement coverage is very low: only about 3% of full‑time drivers receive their legal entitlements to annual leave, superannuation and sick leave. The author suggests the NSW government should work to raise that proportion well above the current 3%.
Has the NSW Taxi Drivers Association asked for changes to fares or surcharges?
Yes. The NSW Taxi Drivers Association requested the state government impose a 20% loading on weekend fares to match the night surcharge that currently applies from 10pm to 6am, a change the article notes in the context of driver incomes being low.
How does government transparency and unanswered parliamentary questions affect oversight of industries like taxis?
The article links broader transparency problems to weaker accountability: it describes growing bureaucratic secrecy and notes that many departments failed to answer Senate estimates questions on time (for example, Immigration and Citizenship had yet to answer 423 questions). That weakening of oversight can complicate timely regulation and reform of sectors such as the taxi industry.
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