The town of Gunnedah is at risk of losing its taxi services if the attitude of some people in the community doesn’t change, a local taxi operator has told local media.
Jason (pictured) and Kerrie Bush, owners of Gunnedah Taxis and Cabs, have provided the service to the region for close to 13 years.
But now their business is for sale and, after 18 months, they still don’t have a buyer.
They say they would leave the business tomorrow if they could – but there’s a few things keeping them, in particular, the assistance they provide to Gunnedah’s elderly and disabled community.
Mr Bush says ongoing issues related to alcohol and drug related violence, such as verbal and physical abuse, damage to vehicles, general disrespect towards drivers and non-payment of fares has resulted in a big reduction of taxi services on Friday and Saturday nights.
He fears the cuts could lead to further rollbacks, or, the service ending altogether.
“We’re on the verge of, if it doesn’t improve, cutting the whole taxi service on Friday and Saturday night,” he told the Namoi Valley Independent.
“The reason is that we can’t get drivers to stay. We are getting fantastic drivers that are strong-headed but they’re worn out in four or five months because of the attitude of people.”
Mr Bush said the situation has spiraled out of control and unfortunately if they can’t make the whole service work, everything may go, as it’s just not financially viable.
“It’s not cheap to run taxis with insurance, rego and everything else that goes with it – you need everything,” he said.
“We’ve had the business for sale, but with the way the taxi industry is going with deregulation, no one is looking to buy taxis.”
“If Gunnedah didn’t have a taxi service, the old people are going to suffer and struggle to get to doctor’s appointments or do their shopping.”
Mr Bush said they had a short respite during COVID but as soon as the pubs opened up again the pair could “feel their stress levels rise”.
Jason and Kerrie are also concerned that if they don’t continue to provide their taxi service on Friday and Saturday nights, rates of drink driving will increase.
“That is my main focus too, I don’t want Gunnedah to lose this service and see people start drink driving,” Mr Bush said.
From this week, Gunnedah Taxis and Cabs Services will no longer run a maxi taxi after 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday nights, and there will only be two cars operating to transport a minimum of four passengers per car in order to reduce overloading.
This article first appeared on Namoi Valley Independent website.
