Taxi Driver Training Schools

10l. Taxi Driver Training Schools

This should be a major area of investigation for ICAC. Most TaxiTraining Schools are virtually centres of corruption. They aredesigned to lure new arrivals to Australia and the long termunemployed into expensive courses that have little relevance to theworkings of the industry at the coalface under the false pretence ofproviding the drivers a secure job and a happy future. The statisticstell the story. These training schools churn out almost 6,000 newgraduates each year most of whom only last 3-6 months as drivers.The "teachers" in these "schools" almost invariably misguidetheir ``graduates'' to their own taxi bases where they can be thenmilked with high pay-ins, etc.

The effect of the high turnover of drivers, as beneficial as it is tothe training school managers, is that it demoralises the entireworkforce. More experienced drivers are forever getting flack frompassengers because of the human failings of the constant flow ofpoorly trained inexperienced drivers. There is a constant oversupplyof newer drivers, many of whom are prepared to work intolerable hoursto meet unrealistic pay-ins, etc. This is the real reason for thedeclining level of service, the rising level of traffic ccidentsinvolving drivers, etc. [Wl-5]. Further documents will be provided toICAC to expose the hand-in-hand complicity of the DOT with theseshonky operators.

Source: Sydney Taxi Corruption