Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT) Customer Satisfaction Survey

The Department of Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) is undertaking a major review of the ACT taxi industry.

A key focus of the review was to evaluate the level of service provided by wheelchair accessible taxis (WATs) in order to identify areas for improvement.

A survey was developed for WAT users to establish current customer satisfaction levels and discern any trends since the last survey of its kind which was conducted in 2006.

The survey was developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a firm engaged by TAMS to undertake independent financial analysis of various aspects of the taxi industry and to recommend options for change.

The survey consisted of a number of questions designed to measure satisfaction across various criteria including passenger travel patterns, WAT response times, driver attitude and overall satisfaction with service levels.

Results indicate that while some aspects of the service are effective, wheelchair accessible taxi services overall need to be improved.

Over 70 responses to the wheelchair accessible taxi (WAT) satisfaction survey were received, identifying a number of areas for improvement.  

When compared to the 2006 survey of accessible taxi users, dissatisfaction with services has risen from 18 per cent to 52 per cent. Dissatisfaction levels were 31 per cent in 2005 and 24 per cent in 2004.  The percentage of respondents generally satisfied has decreased to 2004 levels at 40%.  This result provides further evidence of the importance of the current review.

Some of the findings include:

• respondents were generally dissatisfied with the service provided by the taxi networks, with nearly 30% ‘very dissatisfied’;
• bookings made direct to drivers rather than through the taxi networks make up 45 per cent of WAT services.  Reasons for this include driver familiarity with the passenger’s requirements, reliability and timeliness of service;
• 84 per cent of private bookings arrived within 14 minutes compared to 50 per cent booked through a network. Where an immediate pick up was requested, 70 per cent of private bookings arrived within 30 minutes compared to 35 per cent of bookings through a network. This finding suggests that network booking systems need to be improved;
• respondents indicated satisfaction with WAT drivers remains relatively high, although compared to the satisfaction level of 2006, it has somewhat declined across service attributes such as driving ability, route taken, knowledge of Canberra, handling cash and courtesy shown;
• approximately 80 per cent of drivers assist customers to board and alight from taxis and 85 per cent of drivers secure mobility devices.

The survey also revealed that while the majority of drivers correctly started and ended the taxi meter, 45 per cent of drivers were reported to incorrectly start the meter before the journey commenced and 16 per cent do not immediately stop the meter on arrival to the customer’s destination.

Use of the Taxi Subsidy Scheme was high, with 90 per cent of survey respondents having utilised the scheme. 

A copy of the survey results is available for downloading from the link below. 

Download 

• Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT) Customer Satisfaction Survey—Results ( PDF 201Kb)
  
• Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT) Customer Satisfaction Survey ( PDF 60Kb)