Moonshots
Summary
Government needs to negotiate a partnership with tyre manufacturers which would give access to high-quality yet low cost tyres, specifically for the taxi industry in order to save passenger lives. A helping hand to all feuding taxi associations would give government a seat in all their negotiation fora.
Problem
Feuding associations are in competition over routes which has resulted in drivers racing to get as many passengers in a day as possible. The overloaded taxis inevitably get into accidents more often than not. Too frequently the accident reports list worn tyres as the predominant reason for the driver's inability to control the vehicle. Government's multitude of owner-workshops, to educate owners about safety, have no real impact as the associations do not accept government's concern as genuine, instead it is believed that government intends to wipe the industry out or over-regulate it.
Solution
Government to negotiate with the tyre industry for them to produce a specific tyre for the taxis in all applicable sizes and to an accepted safety rating. The government would then negotiate a price ceiling for the taxi tyres by size and, on the other side, legislate that all taxis are to use only that tyre if they are in possession of a public tarnsport permit. This would ensure that the manufacturers would continue to make an economic profit by focusing on sales volumes instead of revenue per sale. Now the taxi owners would not have an excuse for purchasing the low cost tyres and their associations would endorse the enforcement of legislated remedies against defaulters. The demonstration of concern for the wellbeing of the industry would make the associations more receptive to suggestions for change by government. Now governemnt would begin to be viewed as a partner and would also be allowed more access to policy forming sessions. Controls set by government in the industry would now be received with far less disdain and the partnership would begin to prevent the unnecessary loss of lives on the road due to poor maintenance.
Practical Impact
Long-distance taxis would be fitted with safe tyres even when loaded above capacity which reduced the risk of tyre burst or lost control due to worn tyres. Then government would earn legitimacy and would see more acceptance of its initiatives for growing public transport in parallel modes such as buses. The strategy for the whole transportation sector would, for the first time, include the taxi industry who would come willingly.
First Steps
- Government reaches agreement with tyre manufacturers and funds research
- Manufacturers produce stock for long-distance carriers on traditionally high risk routes
- Government subsidizes the discount offered during pilot phase to ensure uptake of new product and to achieve buy-in by owners
- Run pilot for full and compare results with statistics of previous year's taxi accidents categorizing by accident cause
- On successful pilot, spread to all long-distance carriers at price ceiling(agreed to within the CoP at a special sitting with government and the manufacturers)
May 4, 2011 at 1:57pm
At some point, government will have to do something radically innovative to bring the taxi industry close enough to regulate them without perpetuating the perception that they favour western transport methods over homegrown methods used by the disenfranchised of South Africa. A cynic could pointt out that the taxi mode of transport is actually more expensive than the bus or train modes which are far safer for the passengers. Maybe the true advantage of the taxis is servicing passengers in close proximity to their homes and being able to deliver them "anywhere" along a route, in most cases in blatant violation of traffic laws of the land.
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