Few businesses in Australia have escaped the effects of the recent Global Financial Crisis and the taxi industry is no exception. The 2009/10 financial year has seen a notable decrease in 131-008 call volumes. Successful calls to 131-008 in the last financial year were down by 9.37% when compared to the 2008/09 year. The decrease in taxi usage in that period was concentrated in the capital cities and popular tourist destinations, although almost every taxi service was affected to some degree. However, with the Australian economy recovering strongly, so too are our call volumes. The four months from July 2010 have seen national call volumes return to solid positive growth. The company expects that growth to continue and strengthen throughout next year.
Increased company revenue combined with decreased operational costs and a reduction in the general marketing budget has allowed the company to return revenue directly to its members via the Call Rebate Scheme, which was introduced in 2009. Over $225,000.00 was returned to members in May and June of 2010. The scheme has been very well received by our members and will continue in 2010/11. Many taxi services have invested their proceeds from the Call Rebate Scheme into the local promotion of 131-008 to further increase calls to 131-008, effectively increasing their future benefits from the scheme.
The net profit for the company last financial year was $19,765.00. The year saw the company’s share register expand to include taxi services in Wollongong and Forster in New South Wales. The company also welcomed new shareholders in Horsham and Shepparton in Victoria, Narromine and Murwillumbah in New South Wales and Murray Bridge in South Australia. The share register remains open, and the company continues to encourage new entrants, primarily as a means of securing long-term access to the 131-008 service in their taxi district.
The investigation, development and low-cost delivery of new technology that will benefit our members, taxi users and the taxi industry in general, is part of the company’s stated Strategic Plan. The percentage of calls to 131-008 from mobile phones compared to calls from landlines continued to increase throughout 2009/10 with mobile calls now accounting for 55.83% of all successful calls to 131-008. After considerable consultation with taxi services and extensive trials and market research in early 2010, the company committed to the development of an SMS taxi booking service. The service is now available to all 131-008 taxi services at no cost. SMS in Australia is a simple and broadly accepted means of communication. Effective promotion of SMS as an alternate taxi booking method will considerably reduce the load on taxi call centres from mobile phone bookings and I encourage all of our taxi services to take advantage of our new SMS taxi booking service.
I would like to thank my co-directors and the Executive Officer for their support throughout the year. On behalf of the Board and the shareholders, I wish to acknowledge the contribution Ian Schilling has made to the company. His two-year tenure as a Director of the company comes to an end today.
In 1992, the founding shareholders of Taxi 131-008 Limited had a clear objective:
To create one national taxi booking phone number that all participating taxi services would benefit from.
The key to the successful realisation of that vision is the legal structure of the company, which allows for the extension of ownership of the company to the very taxi services that benefit from the number. Today, 287 taxi services have the advantage of access to Australia’s only nationally recognised taxi booking phone number - 131-008, including taxi services in every major city and town in Australia, and many smaller towns. It is the combined participation of all our member taxi services, large and small, that gives 131-008 its strength as Australia’s national taxi phone number which, in turn, advantages each individual member.
On behalf of the Directors and management, I thank all members for their support and we look forward to continuing our mutually beneficial relationship.
Garrie Woolford
Chairman
26 November 2010
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