Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that there are some issues at the moment
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: with these new drivers' licenses. Some of them aren't scanning
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: apparently on the BDR. Now joining us on the line
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to talk more about this hospitality into CEO Alex Bruce,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Alex, Good ay, Katie, Alex. What is the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: go with these new driver's licenses.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, quite a small issue. But when you think that
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: about it, and we do four hundred thousand BDR scans
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a month on average, sometimes some of these little little
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: things that aren't as good as they could be end
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: up having frustrations and a larger impact I reckon.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So and so at the moment, we've got these new
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: licenses that are being rolled out, and so some of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: them you can't actually or is it correct that these
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: new licenses, all of them, they can't actually be scanned
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: on the BDR machines.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Communication has gone out from the government to bottle shops
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: saying they're aware of the issue. A lot of shops
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: are reporting that they haven't been successful in a single
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: scan of the new licenses, and I heard that again
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: talking to some bottle shops in the city yesterday. So
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: it's definitely not fixed yet. But whereas the old license
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: could be slapped down on the BDR machine in any position,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: in any direction and it would read these news licenses.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: They've sent an image where it has to very very
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: neatly be put up in the top middle corner of
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the machine, and then even only then half the time
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: it doesn't work, which sounds small, but it just means
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the bottle shop attendant then has to be manually entering
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: all the transactions. Yeah, the new driver's licenses. And there
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: is a bit of a concern as well with the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: letters because you wait up to twenty eight days to
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: receive it in the mail. Now, I was lucky. I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: updated my old license only a week before they announced
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the changes.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: And you know, after the way that the mbr are
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: per up. There another five minutes after the counter and
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: there's your card. Now we're waiting twenty eight days in
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: the mail and do transacts, including on the BDR.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Well, and we're meant to be accepting these letters.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it slows everything right down. I would
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: imagine you said, how did you say, four hundred thousand
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: transactions a month.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's in the last report that the government. The
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: government used to do monthly BDR out of report and
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: they haven't published one since June. We've been on them
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to try and get that updated. We think it was
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: a pretty good resource for people to see what was
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: going on in terms of scans and sales versus rejected
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: sales across the territory. But yeah, so that shows on average,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and it's seasonal and it does depend in a normal
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: year when we do have more tourists up here. Yeah,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: about four hundred thousand a month.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Well, and I would imagine that that's going to get
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: busier as well over the Christmas period. So any delays
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: like in terms of being able to scan scan those
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: licenses is going to have an impact when you're busy
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and you're at the counter trying to serve people. But Alex,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: what is the go So if you can't actually, if
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you can't scan it properly when you put it down
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: on the machine, they've then got to manually insert the numbers.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Correct and that's what they do. Even with the old ones,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you know that were a bit faded or a frequent
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: user might be getting them out of their wallet a
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: lot for the purpose of a BDR scan, So there
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: was always the need for the attendant to check that
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the license had scanned properly. Yeah, but yeah, it is
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: just as more of these roll out. We understand they
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: are working on the algorithms with the tech company behind
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the BDR to fix the problem. I suppose my own
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: comment on that would have been, given the high rate
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of usage of licenses on the BDR system, I thought
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: they would have done that kind of due diligence before
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: rolling out new licenses.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Well, common sense would tell you that, but unfortunately sometimes
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: that doesn't prevail. Alex. I also am of the understanding
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that there's some real issues when it comes to South
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Australian licenses and Western Australian licenses to straggling to the territory.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is an emerging one for us and I'll
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: be king for understanding from your listener's perspective. You know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank last year said on current trend rates,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: cash will be dead within the decade. COVID has sped
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: that up. You see everyone you know pay waving on
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: their phone or they're smart watch or their credit card
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: for a single coffee or a single beer in our venues.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: New South Wales and South Australia have already rolled out
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: digital drivers licenses. Yea. We've got no public plans for
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: when we go that way up here, but already we've
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: been instructed that we cannot accept digital drivers licenses from
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: New South Wales or South Australian residences and manually enter
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: that data into the BDR and we use the sale.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: And I just questioned why a system that's set up
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: to target those problems within the territory community that people
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: do know are real and they're on the BDR, why
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: is the tourists now being told if they forgot their
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: hard copy license or left it at home, we're meant
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: to not serve you alcohol in the entire Northern Territory
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: during this day. Wow.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's certainly going to hinder things with
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: our tourists. And I don't know about you, but I
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: like when I go on holidays, I actually one of
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the first things I do is going by a bottle
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of wine and just you know, then you can have
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a responsible drink in the afternoons or whatever. So if
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you weren't able to do that, I would think, where
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: have I gone? What is this place?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: That's it? And we're just we're raising it now when
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: it's a small issue which we hope can be addressed
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: quickly before it mounts. But you know, you can honestly
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: predict in a year or two times people won't be
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: carrying their wallets and their phones around as often as
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: they currently are. Once your driver's like in details, they're
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: on your smartphone or smart watch. You'll treat your driver's
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: license hard copy like your passport. It's it'll always be
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: a significant document, but you'll keep it secure at home.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: You've just head out with your phone.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I know people who do that already. So at the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: moment though with New South Wales and South Australia, they're
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: sort of already moving towards that, but our system here
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: with the BDR isn't going to support it.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Ours is going backwards. Unfortunately, we're twenty eight day delays
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: for Territorians to get their driver's license. No plans for
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: digital IDs announced up here, and we've been told that
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: we can't accept them on the BDR, when you know
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Quantus accepts them. So you can book a you can
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: book a flight and rock up at the domestic checking
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: counter and show it. You can book one of our
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: hotel rooms with your digital driver's license from South Australia.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: He said, Look, you can hire you can even drive
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: away roads up here with it, but we can't sell
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: you a bottle of wine responsibly.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems absurd, Alex, Like, what are the answers here?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: What do we need? You know, what do you think
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: really needs to happen?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Isle, We just wanted to put it up the flag pole.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: There just needs to be some work done. I think
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: there's some legislation that needs tweaking. We are dealing with
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: a ten year old, clapped out BDR system. Though the
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: scan is a failing more often the call out times
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: to fix them is unfortunately getting a little bit worse
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: as well. So we do as a community need to
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: start thinking about what BDR mark two looks like in
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the new year.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Well, I tell you what, it's always interesting times, Alex Bruce,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't sound like a good situation for you know,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: for some of our outlets over the Christmas period when
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: it is going to be busy, and you just want
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: to make it as easy as possible for people to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: be able to use their licenses and to be able
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to put those licenses on those BDR machines. And yeah,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: make it nice and easy, that's it.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: And if any delays. We just ask for our customers
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: to be patient with us.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, well, Alex Bruce, CEO of Hospitality NT. If
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: we don't, I mean we're still on air for a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: couple more weeks. But if we don't speak to you
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: before Christmas, I hope you have a lovely Christmas. And
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: thanks for all your input this year.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah thanks Katie. You've actually got me on my final
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: day on the tools today, I'm not following the Chief
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Minister's advice either and hitching up my camp trailer and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: hitting out.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Good on you mate, have a lovely break with your family.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks, thank you you too.