From next month, Queenstown Taxis, Corporate Cabs and Green Cabs will no longer operate from Queenstown CBD ranks, having parked the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s $500-a-pop rank permits.
Instead, they will be available for hire through their call centres.
It comes after an apparent breakdown in communication between the council and the cab companies over long-running issues with the permit system, introduced in 2019 after the industry was deregulated two years earlier.
Of the 150 permits issued, 88 are held by those three companies as of this week, but none of them are being renewed.
Corporate Cabs chief executive Cameron Allison said over the past 12 months there had been a lot of positive discussion with council about the permit system, and whether or not there was "scope for change".
"There was definitely acknowledgement that change needed to occur."
Corporate Cabs national legal and compliance manager James Hart said those discussions focused on consumer protection issues — for example the failure of independent cabbies to negotiate fares in advance, which is a legal requirement when they were not using a meter — and general safety issues.
Mr Allison and Queenstown Taxis managing director Grant Scannell, who is also New Zealand Small Passenger Service Vehicle Association president — of which Mr Hart is vice-president — understood there would be a meeting between them and council’s strategy and asset planning manager Mark Baker before permits went out for renewal.
Instead, they were astounded to receive an email from Mr Baker on June 28 giving them 48 hours to renew.
Further, the price was increasing to $500, up from $100, which had been the rate since October 2020, and had not been adjusted since the impact of Covid and the disruption of council’s infrastructure work.
Council communications and marketing adviser Daniel O’Keeffe said this year’s permit renewal was affected by "technical and resourcing issues".
There would be a grace period to ensure drivers were not infringed while waiting on their new permits.
"We can’t favour one company over another and are pushing on with the renewals process in an equitable way."
However, the three operators questioned where the value was in the permit, given they had allegedly lost 50% of the taxi ranks over the past few years and there had been no proper enforcement of the permits — or where other independent taxi drivers were parking up.
"I guess it would be everybody’s assumption who’s paying that fee that it’s going on either infrastructure to support taxi ranks, or enforcement," Mr Allison said.
The council was asked what the $75,000 collected through the permits, at full rate, was being spent on. An answer was unable to be provided by deadline.
Mr Hart said they were disappointed by the way the situation had been handled.
"Treasury, in 2017, released guidelines for setting of fees in the public sector.
"We don’t believe that the $500 per vehicle is an accurate reflection of cost-recovery and doesn’t meet Treasury’s 2017 guidelines."
Mr Scannell, who initially pushed for the permits, said it appeared as though taxi drivers had become "a cash-cow" for council.
There were now just 10 taxi parks in the CBD, eight on Camp St and two on Shotover St, meaning competition for those spots from the 150 permit-holders was intense. Further, loading zones used to convert to taxi stands after 6pm, but Mr Scannell claimed many had been changed "without our knowledge".
Mr O’Keeffe said the council plans to develop a parking strategy and subsequent "comprehensive parking management plans" which would "heavily influence" the location and number of taxi ranks in the district.
"All taxi operators will receive an invitation to participate in this process and inform our decisions."
Mr Allison said they would "probably" take the matter to the ombudsman.
