Taxi boss outlines battle plan
New Swan Taxis chief See Peng Yeo says he will adopt an innovative three-pronged battle plan to invigorate Perth’s flagging taxi industry in the face of falling standards, poor perceptions and the Uber juggernaut.
Mr Yeo told The Weekend West the plan would involve world-class technology, enhanced driver services and supporting regulatory change.
The first salvo was fired this week with the release of Swan Taxis’ improved booking app. Future strikes will include incentives for good drivers and encouraging them to wear a uniform — all aimed at ensuring taxis are on time, clean and well presented.
But Mr Yeo said the battle needed to be fought on a level playing field and drivers from ride-sharing companies such as Uber should be required to have the same training, insurance and lease fees as taxi drivers.
“We welcome competition,” he said. “But the regulations governing our industry need to be changed to make sure it is a fair playing field.”
Swan Taxis has been owned by the Singaporean conglomerate ComfortDelGro, one of the biggest transport companies in the world, since 2010 and dominates Perth’s taxi network, with about 90 per cent of the city’s total fleet.
Mr Yeo was appointed chief executive in January after serving as one of the company’s senior vice-presidents in Singapore. He has served with Singapore’s Ministry of Defence and its army, reaching the rank of brigadier-general.
He holds a masters of arts from Oxford University, a masters in military studies from the Marine Corps University in Virginia and a masters of public administration from Harvard University in Massachusetts.
He said challenges the Perth taxi industry faced were not dissimilar to those in other parts of Australia and the world. And technology would hold the key to Swan Taxis’ response.
“The new app is modern and user-friendly — sleeker and sexier than the app offered by the Uber service,” Mr Yeo said. “We are working on other features.” that will be unveiled later.”
The app allows the owner to pre-set favourite locations and journeys, track a taxi to arrival, share ride details with family and friends, rate a driver and give feedback.
Mr Yeo said Swan Taxis would continue to work with its driver focus groups to do what they could to improve services — that taxis were on time and clean and the driver was competent.
“We don’t have direct control over each individual taxi because they are privately owned,” he said. “So we do all we can to encourage every taxi to be well presented and well maintained.
“A uniform is important but only half of our drivers currently wear a uniform. We have decided to start selling our uniforms from our headquarters in Victoria Park to make it easier for drivers to buy them and encourage them to wear them.”
Mr Yeo said the company was also looking at introducing a scheme where consistently good drivers are rewarded by being assigned lucrative contract work.
