Career That's Really Going Places
The Age
Saturday March 22, 2003
Con Alexopoulos recently started work as a taxi driver. He speaks to Yellow Cabs general manager Glenn Ellam about working in the industry.
CON: I started working for the public service in the railways. I've worked in logistics and advertising and had different titles along the way. My last job in sales involved a lot of driving around, but it was relocated, so I thought becoming a taxi driver would be an easy transition. My brother had also been a taxi driver for a while. The job is better than I thought. I enjoy the interaction with people and being away from an office. Every day is different. You don't know who you're going to meet, what you're going to talk about and where you're going to end up. At this stage, I am doing the work because it's flexible. At some point down the track I will consider whether or not I want to change jobs and pursue a management style role.
GLENN: I also came from a sales background. I had a number of my own businesses in manufacturing and retail (milk bars, restaurants and coffee shops). After obtaining my driver's certificate I drove my first taxi on a casual basis in 1987. I sold my business and then drove full-time for six months. The management at the depot I was driving for asked if I would consider becoming their operations manager, a position I ended up holding for nine years. I left that role and then drove for another 10 months before starting a job in a completely different area: as general manager of a welfare company, Foodbank Victoria, where I stayed for three years until the former CEO returned from maternity leave. I jumped back into a cab for another eight months, then got a job as an instructor at the Driver Education Centre of Australia, in Altona. Two years ago, Yellow Cabs offered me a job as training manager, and in September last year I became Yellow Cabs' general manager.
CON: To start out, I contacted the Victorian Taxi Directorate, who sent me an application form. I had police and medical checks and also had to complete a literacy and numeracy test, which enabled me to start the five-day driver training course.
GLENN: That course costs $340 and involves four days of learning and, on the fifth day, a driving assessment and a two-hour theory test. Drivers need a good knowledge of Melbourne, the taxi industry, and how to conduct themselves with various passengers. They also need to know about the car they drive and how its equipment works, including the meter, EFTPOS, GPS and security cameras. The course is fairly intensive and may soon extend to seven days.
The driving assessment involves being given a destination and then planning the most direct route and arriving there safely.
CON: Some struggled with that part, simply because their knowledge of Melbourne might not have been as good. It can be a bit daunting being under that pressure.
GLENN: There are 3500 taxis in Melbourne and a working core of around 15,000 drivers. There are a number of ways of getting involved in the industry. You can start as a driver and, if you enjoy that, you can step up and become a taxi operator by leasing a licence from an owner and operating the car as your own. You pay a set fee to the operator, but the car and income from it are yours.
The lease is negotiated and may or may not involve a vehicle. All the other expenses, maintenance, staffing and depot fees, are the responsibility of the person operating the taxi. It costs about $70,000 to run a vehicle.
If you have the wherewithal, you can become an owner. At the moment, licences sell for between $320,000 and $330,000, which is basically a pair of number plates. Then you've got to get your car, get it fitted out, and then staff it. New vehicles are around $30,000. Buying your own licence becomes a higher level of business again.
It's not easy out there at the moment. Business is pretty tight and some of the guys are struggling. A lot of people get involved in the industry thinking it's easy to jump into a cab because all you need to do is go out and get a passenger, put the meter on and take the money. But many take on more responsibility than that.
CON: There might be days when you do 30 little jobs or 10 big jobs. I have a pattern with where I want to be at particular times of the day. It's just a matter of being efficient and switched on; that's the difference between average and successful drivers.
GLENN: The taxi industry has a fairly high turnover, but also a core of committed drivers who use driving as their primary source of income. Some may work as drivers after their job has been made redundant, there are students, and those who drive once in a while, maybe just before tax time, at Christmas time or when the rates are due. The Kennett Government reforms really pulled the industry out of the doldrums and made people realise it's a worthwhile industry to be involved in.
© 2003 The Age