Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Top End General Manager Glen Hingley on the exorbitant cost of ride sharing harming the NT as a tourism destination

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Tourism Top End General Manager Glen Hingley on the exorbitant cost of ride sharing harming the NT as a tourism destination · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But joining me on the line right now is Tourism
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  Speaker 1: Top End General Manager Glenn Hingley. Good morning to you, Glenn.
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  Speaker 2: Katie, good morning, and good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Glenn, we've been talking a little bit this morning about
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  Speaker 1: the shortage of taxis, and I know that it's been
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  Speaker 1: a real concern for a lot of people as they
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  Speaker 1: arrive at the airport, maybe they're here for the first
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  Speaker 1: time from interstate and when you can't get to your
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  Speaker 1: hotel or your airbnb, it makes a big impact. How's
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  Speaker 1: it going from your perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not a good look, you know, And we
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  Speaker 2: all know someone now who's arrived in the airport and
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  Speaker 2: seeing those cues and known and then jumped on the
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  Speaker 2: right chair app and found what's normally a thirty dollars
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  Speaker 2: fair is surcharged up to one hundred and eighteen is
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  Speaker 2: the one that I've seen is the best around that
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  Speaker 2: kind of money because they had that capability to do
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  Speaker 2: that with that fair surcharging, whereas taxis have had their
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  Speaker 2: rates fixed, their distance rates since twenty fourteen. Glennami sector
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  Speaker 2: of our tourism industry regulated by GUB Glenn, just go.
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  Speaker 1: Back to that for a moment. So on one of
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  Speaker 1: the ride sharing apps, somebody's been charged.
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  Speaker 2: How much that's to get you What would normally be
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  Speaker 2: a thirty dollar fare was one hundred and eighteen dollar fare,
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  Speaker 2: but they had to accept it. Now they chose not to,
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  Speaker 2: but that was it. They took a screenshot of it.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the difference between the ride share industry and taxis.
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  Speaker 2: Taxis is a regulated sector that doesn't matter if you
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  Speaker 2: want to go to the end of the street. Part
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  Speaker 2: of the regulation around taxis is they do that ridehare
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  Speaker 2: have the ability to sit back, pick and choose how
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  Speaker 2: they want your star ratings, what far distance. And also
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  Speaker 2: there's been that process where I've heard delegations of families
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  Speaker 2: all on the ridehair app changing their location to see
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  Speaker 2: if they could get that interest in that car, almost
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  Speaker 2: bidding against each other for those cars. It's a real
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  Speaker 2: tough one.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The people who are most concerned with that arrival experience
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  Speaker 2: in Dahlan is the taxi drivers our dal and own
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  Speaker 2: taxi companies Radio Adall and Radio Taxis and Blue Blue
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  Speaker 2: Taxi company. You know, the owners of those they're driving themselves,
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  Speaker 2: the owners of those companies, they're on the phones themselves
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  Speaker 2: to try and make sure that that visit arrival experience
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  Speaker 2: is every thing. And I think that's the one that
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  Speaker 2: that's easy to take a photo of that queue. But
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  Speaker 2: the other priority, of course is getting people to the
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  Speaker 2: airport to meet their departing floor as well. When there's
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  Speaker 2: a call sheet of people wanting to get to that
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  Speaker 2: to that five o'clock departure flight, they've got to do
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  Speaker 2: all they thinky thing they can because if there's no
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  Speaker 2: other way to get there, they've got to do that.
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  Speaker 2: And it's beyond just the airport arrival. It's about getting
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  Speaker 2: from your city hotel down to stokesia War for your
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  Speaker 2: harbor cruz, or getting out for a dinner for two
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  Speaker 2: and you can have it so you can have a
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  Speaker 2: couple of drinks and not have to drive, and make
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  Speaker 2: sure that you get a taxi on your way home.
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  Speaker 2: So there's all these areas here that have great concernatis.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, there is no doubt about it, you know, Glenn.
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  Speaker 1: In some cases, how long are you know, some of
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  Speaker 1: our tourists and or families trying to you know, get home,
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  Speaker 1: how long are they waiting?
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  Speaker 2: We've heard those those ways are up to two hours,
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  Speaker 2: three hours at the airport at its worst, and that's
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  Speaker 2: that's you know, they're looking at, is there a car
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  Speaker 2: intel I can do? But maybe that's not available in
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  Speaker 2: most cases. At the moment it's not. We've seen a
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  Speaker 2: big surge in that. And the real challenge here is
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  Speaker 2: that the taxi industry isn't as profitable as everyone would
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  Speaker 2: like to think it is. Taxis at the moment are
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  Speaker 2: off the road because there isn't The drivers who see
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  Speaker 2: it as lucrative enough to do something, they prefer to
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  Speaker 2: go work in bullies or do something else then drive
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  Speaker 2: a taxi because the fare structure, the costs, and if
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  Speaker 2: we look at fuel, you know it's two hundred and
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  Speaker 2: five cent a liter, and so many of the taxis also,
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  Speaker 2: especially on the call pickup jobs or to get to
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  Speaker 2: the airport, they've got to drive across town. So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's not that point point of the passenger. It's it's
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  Speaker 2: the getting to there that that's a challenge. The cost
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  Speaker 2: of tires has gone up five seven dollars in the
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  Speaker 2: last few months. And when I said to the owners
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  Speaker 2: of the taxi companies, I said, tires and copy your
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  Speaker 2: big thing. They said, it is if you turn over
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  Speaker 2: your tires every four to six weeks, which a taxi
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  Speaker 2: typically does. Yeh, keep up with regulations.
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  Speaker 1: It's astronomical. And we did catch up a bit early
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  Speaker 1: this morning with a couple of taxi drivers and Karen
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  Speaker 1: for and Catherine was saying exactly that, you know that
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  Speaker 1: that with the cost of the cost of petrol etctera rising,
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  Speaker 1: it gets to the point where you know, she can't
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  Speaker 1: get drivers for her taxi because it's you know, it's
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  Speaker 1: more lucrative for people to go and work at Woolley's
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  Speaker 1: or anywhere else rather than driving a taxi. Glenn, what
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  Speaker 1: can we do? You know, is there anything that can
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  Speaker 1: be done in this space, because, like you've touched on
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  Speaker 1: obviously as the tourism top end general manager, it's going
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  Speaker 1: to have an impact on us when it comes to tourists.
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  Speaker 2: Having an impact is having a well being on the drivers,
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  Speaker 2: company owners as well as our tourism experience up here
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  Speaker 2: as well. I think there needs to be a concerted
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  Speaker 2: effort to also recognize that the costs have risen dramatically
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  Speaker 2: that taxi fairs haven't and so we've got for a
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  Speaker 2: period of time and maybe this is just for the
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  Speaker 2: next three months in the next six months, be able
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  Speaker 2: to do something to make sure that it's attractive for
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  Speaker 2: people to want to drive a taxi, be you're a
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  Speaker 2: student or someone who's semi retired looking for some extra
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  Speaker 2: hours that you can do that. The other one is
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  Speaker 2: the level of enforcement of regulation, enforcement that goes around
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  Speaker 2: what is already a highly regulated sector of taxis. Is
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  Speaker 2: the level of enforcements, the perception of feeling from drivers
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  Speaker 2: at the moment, it's quite on going to use the
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  Speaker 2: word over zealous, where there could be a bit more understanding.
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  Speaker 2: So there are many occasions I've heard in recent weeks
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  Speaker 2: where taxi drivers have said enough, I don't need to
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  Speaker 2: be pulled over and chastised or checked or double checked
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  Speaker 2: for something. I haven't done anything wrong, but I've just
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  Speaker 2: got I've got compliant offices stepping out of the bushes
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  Speaker 2: and saying we want to talk to you now. In
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  Speaker 2: any industry that people aren't doing the right thing, but
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  Speaker 2: overwhelming and taxis are proud of what they do and
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  Speaker 2: proud to the services they supply and are trying to
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  Speaker 2: keep up with demand. The other thing is, and we
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  Speaker 2: talk about airport specific is is we had meeting with
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  Speaker 2: government Government yesterday was to talk about what INFRAM can
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  Speaker 2: be done around shuttle bus services in partnership with Darwin Airport.
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  Speaker 2: We know that Darwin Airport are working hard on this
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  Speaker 2: as well, that there's a period of time here, especially
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  Speaker 2: those early mornings when it's all stacked up and people
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  Speaker 2: are going to hotels, that we can make it easier
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  Speaker 2: for those companies that are already providing the service to
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  Speaker 2: be able to put on some more registered vehicles registered
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  Speaker 2: to carry passages commercially to be able to do that,
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  Speaker 2: and that's not helping all the locals coming home either
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  Speaker 2: or or friends visiting friends and relatives who aren't getting
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  Speaker 2: picked up at the airport. To only helps people to
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  Speaker 2: get to the hotels of course, but there are vehicles available,
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  Speaker 2: but we just a wine drivers and b. We just
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  Speaker 2: need a little bit better understanding from our friends at
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory Government, especially in the compliance around the commercial
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  Speaker 2: passenger vehicle area, just to make it a little bit
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  Speaker 2: easier for these guys to be able to operate and
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  Speaker 2: delivery because the knock on effect is very ordinary experiences
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  Speaker 2: for arrival experiences for customers who have paid a lot
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  Speaker 2: of money.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right well, Glenn Heingley, we always appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time. We might have to have a chat to
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  Speaker 1: you again, maybe next week. You're in the very near future,
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  Speaker 1: because we know that it is incredibly busy at the
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  Speaker 1: moment when it comes to tourism. But we've run out
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  Speaker 1: of time today so we will have to catch up
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  Speaker 1: with you again very soon, if that's all right Glenn,
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  Speaker 1: So please.
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  Speaker 2: And if you have the choice of taking a taxi
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  Speaker 2: right here, please always take a taxi. We wouldn't want
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  Speaker 2: to see our going without taxis. All the non tertary
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  Speaker 2: without our taxis.
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  Speaker 1: Glenn Heingley, lovely to speak to you this morning. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: for your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you,