Cablog

Guide dog

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It's hard to understand how a cabbie can refuse such well-trained dogs.

Beat-up

Sorry, dear readers, but this beat-up is the best report on offer today.

Oh, plus another beat-up involving a recent arrest in downtown Sydney.

Final beat-up is found in a colourful cabbie's submission to the NSW taxi inquiry, where he managed to include Charles Manson and Sharon Tate!? Please, don't ask.

Follow up

Yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph published a follow up to their campaign against drivers touting for fares. Of the 82 driver's number plates the paper published the Transport Department has only been able to reprimand four of those drivers. At the time I wrote,

I’m somewhat sceptical as to how the case against the drivers can be proven. Given the complainant, a journalist, is not a compliance officer it must be very doubtful whether the exchange with said drivers can be fairly tested without supporting electronic evidence.

The four drivers reprimanded were pinged using verifiable electronic evidence - they were not logged into the network. Otherwise one imagines the remaining drivers disputed the journalist's version of events or the evidence was simply inconclusive.

FWIW here's a video showing a couple of typical exchanges with would-be passengers in Kings Cross during peak demand.

Yet the Telegraph can take consolation from the fact that their campaign has had the desired effect of cleaning up breaches of touting regulations around changeover time. Well done.

CabTzar

Today's Sydney Morning Herald publishes a comprehensive expose on the influence of taxi boss, Reg Kermode and the resultant impact on drivers and passengers alike...

"The throne of power in Sydney's multi-billion dollar taxi industry..."

Taxi politics is not normally a Cablog topic as the multi-layered shonkiness overwhelms me. It's a bit like investigating child abuse, akin to putting one's head in a bucket of crap. But feel free to have a go at some of the Herald's half dozen articles and lists of documents for an idea of the complexities involved.

UPDATE: More articles.

News

In yesterday's The Australian Cameron Stewart reports on the counter-terrorist raids...

In Melbourne, the taxi industry is dominated by Somalis.

You learn something every day.

In Sydney, the taxi industry is dominated by Australians.

UPDATE: A good question - "I have lived in Australia for 20 years. Tell me, when am I going to be an Australian? When do I stop being a Somali?" (Be nice).

Brothers

For some months there has been hints that life in Baghdad is returning to normal. This is sweet vindication for those who retained faith that peace was possible, despite the entrenched scepticism of large sections of the Western media.

Now a post at Captain Quarters examines a Washington Post report that Baghdad security has been put to the ultimate test - the cabbie factor,

If cabbies feel secure enough to drive all over Baghdad, that's a good indication of normalcy returning to Iraq. They know better than to take extraordinary risks, which makes the cabbie factor an interesting and reliable leading indicator.

There is a sobering qualifier, of course,

...this is still a city where anyone could be killed at any moment for no particular reason.

The blogger, Edward Morrissey, a former Los Angeles cabbie makes an easy analogy with Baghdad cabbies,

...this is the world of cabbies everywhere... Recently, Minneapolis had a rash of cabbie murders, drivers who died for less than $200 because their fares turned out to be murderers, and in LA this happened with less fanfare.

Good luck to Baghdad cabbies, indeed all cabbies, it's a jungle out there.

via US reader, Terry.

Aliens

The phone rings at home around dinner time and there’s a connection delay at the other end. Uh oh, I think, India calling. "Hello, this is John from ..... International," the caller announces with a distinct Asian accent. "John," I reply, "do I know you..?" "Err, nooo," he cautiously says. "Okay, then," I suggest, "let’s leave it that way. Bye." Click. Cruel, I know, but that’s how it’s become with unsolicited tele-marketer calls.

Yet one can’t simply brush-off workers in offshore call-centers contracted to Aussie companies. If there’s a service relationship with that company, one has to grin and bear the sometimes unfathomable accents and resultant frustration. Not to mention a natural reluctance to dealing with international staff for local matters. But then, what's 'local' in today's world ?

To date I’ve never stopped to consider that in many respects these staffers are just like me, providing a needed service and struggling to make a buck.

Until now, that is, after reading an article on Indian taxi drivers contracted to ferrying those employees to and from work. They work all night carrying staff who fix the world’s banking, computer and accounting glitches,

Arya looked out at all the call-center vehicles speeding past. "At this hour, there are only call-center cabs on the road," she said. "I told you we are a breed apart. The aliens are out in the night."

Then, like her cabbie, she retires at dawn and attempts to sleep throughout the day.

Right now, at 6.03am, it’s a routine which sounds terribly familiar and I must admit to a certain affinity with these people, providing the exact same service in today’s global economy. Therefore, good luck to them, I say.

It’s a neat article and well worth reading, for a rare personal perspective on life for offshore staffers. Me, I’m off to bed.

Idiots

Two women board a taxi, one upfront and the other in the back seat. Upon reaching the destination the woman in the front says to the driver,

"Whatever your takings are tonight you are going to give them to me or I am going to make a noise you raped me."

However their plan fell apart when they chased and attacked the driver, then vandalised his cab. The jury delivered a guilty verdict. Idiots. The women, that is, not the jury.

Backhander

Years ago I came across a woman driving a car with the personal plate number, 666. When I inquired if she was worried by the negative connotations of such a number, she just laughed dismissively as if to say, it’s bullshit. Which is probably the best attitude.

However a San Francisco cabbie has had enough bad luck with his 666 plate and has petitioned authorities that it be changed. Trouble is, they've offered him a replacement number, 1307 ! Nice backhander.

Speaking of amusing number plates, here’s a taxi number I regularly see around town. It’s always reminds me of an infatuated Tim Blair commenter, 1.618. Let’s hope she never catches this small dog, barking from behind a bush.

Eulogies

A measure of how dis-empowered cabbies are, was in evidence last Friday at our murdered colleague's funeral. A death which, from all reports, was virtually unavoidable.

At the funeral the president of a drivers association used a eulogy invitation to call for action to improve taxi driver safety. A plea also made at a similar funeral last year.

As a result, there is currently a debate within the industry on whether a funeral is an appropriate time and place to petition (authorities) for change.

Regarding funeral protocol, what do you think about such eulogies ?