Publication Date: 08-NOV-04
INLAND REVENUE staff have been provided with a shuttle bus to cut costs on taxi fares.
Local cab drivers are unhappy.
The government department spent about $120,000 a year on taxis for its 1400 staff to go between the IRD’s six Thorndon and Wellington city offices.
Business development and systems acting deputy commissioner Liz Huckerby said the decision was made to contract a shuttle van to provide a more “effective and cost-efficient” system.
It started last month and runs every half hour throughout the day.
It is expected the new shuttle service will save $24,000 a year.
Ms Huckerby said saving taxpayer money was the primary consideration for using the shuttle, but environmental effects were also taken into account. It would help reduce traffic levels, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, she said.
Staff could still use taxis to other destinations, but were encouraged to use the shuttle between the IRD offices. It is believed the IRD is the first department to take this initiative.
Taxi drivers are disappointed by the loss of business, with one cabbie estimating a 20 per cent drop in daytime takings.
Wellington Combined taxi driver Scott Wright said cabbies had noticed a downturn in work during the day since the department started its new system.
Inland Revenue had been the source of many customers, and it was unfair they had taken them away, he said. “At the end of the day, we pay our taxes and gst, and this is cutting our income by about 20 per cent.”
Taxi Federation Wellington president Dave Clyma said the shuttle was bad news for taxi companies, but he understood the need to save taxpayer money. However, government departments provided a lot of daytime business for cabs, and he hoped they did not all follow the IRD’s lead.
“This will certainly make an already heavily over-populated taxi industry just that much more fragile.”
