A trial of taxis operating independently of Canberra's two dispatch networks had little chance of success, the chair of the Canberra Taxi Industry Association, John McKeough, said yesterday.
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Attorney-General Simon Corbell said on Wednesday the trial, which would allow up to 25 taxis to operate independently of the networks, would be able to offer a broader range of services.
Mr McKeough said many operators were already struggling financially. Four had returned their taxi licences to the regulator last month and he understood many more were about to, faced with January, the crunch month for taxi operators in Canberra.
With about 55 per cent of taxi work coming from the networks, taxi operators would not be able to make up the about $1500 monthly network charge. Then, there would be the $3000 cost of security cameras, currently supplied by the networks, and the need to have duress alarms monitored.
Mr Corbell said a number of taxi operators had made submissions to the taxi review that the networks charged excessive fees but provided limited services in return.
Mr McKeough said no more than five, and possibly only three operators had supported this proposal. Of those, one had already left the industry.
Taxi operators who wanted to be independent from the dispatch networks would find it much less expensive to buy hire-car licences from the Government. The risk was that independent taxis would ''knock off work'' from other taxis to compensate for their loss of income.
Many present taxi operators had private clients.