Taxing credulity

The increasingly bizarre behaviour of taxi drivers borders on a new art form, writes CHRIS BENNETT.

THE recent news of the deaths of ten people in a taxi crash near Lusikisiki has highlighted the increasingly scandalous disregard for the lives and safety of their passengers shown by South African taxi owners.

These shadowy men, the innocent among whom are tarred with the evil brush of the guilty, should be pursued, apprehended and charged. In the case of the man who owned the Toyota Quantum involved in the Lusikisiki enormity, he should be charged with ten counts of manslaughter and locked away for the rest of his life.

I remember well the days when the Toyota Hi-Ace became the taxi de rigueur. This was a long time ago and a lot (probably several thousands) of people are now dead as a result of bad driving, lack of maintenance and overloading. I would like to look at these three aspects of this appalling industry if you will bear with me.

I speak, it need hardly be said, not as an expert but as one whop has done a great deal of driving around South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, much of it in the pursuit of my line of work and some for the indescribable pleasure that Africa can offer the road traveller. I also speak with the often lopsided eye of the journalist, who speaks for those who cannot or will not.

It is not as though nothing can be done about the awful bad habits of the taxi industry, many of which are perpetrated in order to load more people, ergo more profit, into the taxis. The taxi industry is a service industry and therefore, properly, should not be making a profit. Unfortunately our government has shown itself to be incapable of managing the dustbin trucks, so managing something as complex and critical as the taxi industry ain’t gonna happen.

The bad driving of the childishly minded drivers of our taxis is attributable to several things, I do not doubt. However foremost among them has to be a sense of invincibility, a ‘lord of the roads’ mentality, and a complete lack of comprehension of the rules of the road. Were it not such a preposterous idea I would be tempted to say that taxi drivers see the rules of the road as something for aging whites, and nothing to do with the highly polished pieces of black glass that constitute our yoof.

Then we come to the matter of maintenance. This is a tricky one. To understand why maintenance is so very important you first have to grasp its central principle. The maintaining of a thing, be it the fabric of a building, the health of a man or the roadworthiness of a vehicle, is undertaken to ensure its full, and thereby profitable, usability for the duration of its expected life. Waiting until the tyres are bald and then buying “reconstructed” tyres, that is tyres that have been cut with a razorblade to look as though they have tread, is not advisable.

But the real spanner in the works is overloading. This is chumpmanship taken to the point of no return.

The designers of the taxi knew what they were doing. The physical laws that govern the stability of the taxi are altered if the passenger complement is overreached. That is common sense. But, of course, there is the profit to consider, and the driver may have little choice in the matter. Again the onus is on the owner.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the government, national and local, could sort out this problem before next year? After all we do want to impress our visitors: don’t we?