Camera-less taxis banned from accepting fares

The 500 Auckland taxis unable to operate are from a region-wide fleet of 3700 cabs. Photo / NZ Herald

About 500 Auckland taxis have been unable to accept fares since Monday, because mandatory security cameras have yet to be installed in them.

Although their operators were given an extra week from August 1 to fit the cameras and panic buttons, following attacks on drivers and the murders of two of them, the Transport Agency has refused to grant a further reprieve.

Agency spokesman John Doesburg said yesterday that they had been given more than three months to order the cameras and the only extra exemptions were granted to operations where there would not otherwise be enough taxis to provide an adequate transport service.

He said the 500 Auckland taxis unable to operate until they fitted cameras were out of a region-wide fleet of 3700 cabs, so there were still plenty still in service to meet customer demand.

But a manufacturing problem in China meant it was touch and go for the region's largest operator, Auckland Cooperative Taxis, which won a High Court injunction on Sunday afternoon for an exemption until noon today.

A final batch of 70 cameras arrived only yesterday morning, meaning a big push by installers to fit them before the exemption was due to run out.

General manager Barry White said last night that his entire 900-strong fleet was now compliant with the new security legislation.

He said North Shore Taxis, a Co-op subsidiary, was the last part of the operation to be fitted out and the injunction was granted on the ground that most of its cars were needed to carry special needs children to school.

Mr Doesburg said the only other companies still with exemptions were based in Whangarei, Queenstown and Invercargill, where the removal of their cars from the roads would have caused undue inconvenience to the public.

Robert Gregory, owner of A1 Cabs in Whangarei, said his company had run into supply problems which had left it with enough cameras but no panic alarms to go with them.

He was hoping to obtain the necessary alarms for his 26-vehicle fleet before his latest time extension runs out on Sunday night.

A number of cabs run by Mt Roskill-based Cheap Cabs were understood to be queued up at an auto-electrical firm yesterday, as installers worked flat out on a three-hour fitting job.

Its management was unavailable for comment.

Alert Taxis director Robert van Heiningen said his group's 400 cars were fully compliant by August 1, when the legislative requirement for cameras took effect, and there was no excuse for vehicles not to be compliant by now.

He said the cameras were designed to protect drivers and were "not just some frivolous idea".

Cameras range in cost from about $700 to $1100, after reductions in price from early quotes of more than $1500, and will ultimately result in slightly higher fares.

Mr Doesburg said the cameras were to protect the public as well as taxi drivers.

Any driver who accepts a fare without having a camera in a cab risks being fined $400, and taxi companies face paying $2000.