Cabcharge and Criminals

Cabcharge and Criminals

Right now action should be taken to declare, “the Cabcharge is the proceeds of crime and all proceeds should be seized by the government and eventually to be utilized for the public and workers’ safety, welfare and benefit”.

Contact Officer: Monica Bourke
Contact Phone: 02 6243 153 1
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
GPO Box 3131
Canberra ACT 2601
23 Marcus Clarke Street
Canberra ACT 2601
tel: (02) 6243 11 11
fax: (02) 6243 1 199

18 April 2008

Mr Faruque Ahmed
PO Box 349
Alexandria NSW 2015
Dear Mr Ahrned


Re: Removal of Cabcharge Decals from Taxis

I refer to your emails dated 29 November 2007 and 28 March 2008 regarding the removal of decals advertising Cabcharge products.

Review of Taxi Authorisations
As you are aware, on 11 March 2005 the ACCC issued a determination regarding its review of twelve taxi authorisations (including authorisation A301 12 granted to Deluxe Red and Yellow Cabs) concerning the provision of radio booking services to taxi operators and drivers on the condition that they accept certain forms of non-cash payment (card and voucher payments) and the display of decals of those payment methods.

The ACCC considered that cards and vouchers would continue to be widely accepted with or without authorisation, however decided not to revoke the authorisations on the basis that there existed some small benefit in the certainty provided by the authorisation and negligible detriment.

Tribunal decision
The Commission's determination of 11 March 2005 was appealed to the Australian Competition Tribunal. The Tribunal decided on 27 June 2006 to revoke the authorisations on the basis that the benefit of certainty of acceptance of non-cash payments was not sufficient to sustain the authorisations. The Tribunal agreed with the ACCC's proposition that irrespective of the authorisations, taxi operators and drivers are likely to continue to accept non-cash payments.

Eflect of the Tribunal decision
The revocation by the Tribunal of the twelve authorisations means that the networks which previously had authorisation can no longer engage in the conduct without being at risk of action under the Trade Practices Act. Whether or not specific requirements would raise concerns under the competition provisions of the Act would depend on the specific nature of the requirements imposed.

However, the ACCC and the Tribunal expected that cards and vouchers would continue to be widely accepted absent authorisation. Taxi operators and drivers are entitled to advertise the cards and vouchers they accept. Should certain taxi operators and drivers not accept certain cards and vouchers, but advertise on their taxis that these cards are accepted, such could amount to misleading conduct.

Yours sincerely

Isabelle Arnaud
Director
Adjudication Branch

--- In Sydney_TaxiCorruption@yahoogroups.com, "jasonnash80" wrote:
Re: Dear Patricia


Racism to Long Bay Hilton

The taxi mafia used lies and racism to get the Trade Practices Authorisation back in 1980s.

Because Cabcharge gets so much cash; it gained enormous buying power; legal or illegal. Such a power usually hurts the bailee driver and rest of the society in many ways. Recent procurement of many taxi industry related instrumentalities are a prime example and unless this lawless monster is stopped it will swallow the whole society and no one would be in a position to counter the monopolistic venom of Cabcharge.

TPC Determination P 22 … "By reason , inter alia, of the ethnic diversity of taxi drivers … a need for discipline and clearly and simply defined systems"

--- In Sydney_TaxiCorruption@yahoogroups.com, "mamubhi" wrote:
Re: Dear Patricia

Long Bay Hilton for Taxi Mafia

barrybullman said, "Cabcharge is the major user of taxi s in Sydney, It would be stupid to remove their decals or to promote other services irrespective of kermode and all the other idiots."

Probably he did not know the fact that Mr. Faruque Ahmed who is also merely a Media Manager of the NSW Taxi Drivers' association said to the judges, "Taxi co-operatives (not taxi companies or networks) obtained "the authorisation in contention" by not telling the truth, twisting the truth and using racism as well as some other false claims they made to misguide the then Trade Practices Commission. Ultimately, the original applicants, specifically the Red and Yellow Deluxe have used many false claims "for their own narrow benefit" and got away with them. Fortunately most of their typical false claims and lies were detected and eventually correctly rejected by the TPC in matter A30152."

This barrybullman should have refrained to call others stupid because the mighty Cabcharge and the NSW Taxi Council Pty Ltd failed to argue with Mr. Faruque Ahmed or points of contentions presented by him in front of three wise Judges! At the end the taxi mafia lost the case.

Right now Mr. Faruque Ahmed and others should have cornered the taxi mafia properly and organized a permanent residency for Mr. Kermode at the Long Bay Hilton. Alas! Some detractors under the guise of taxi industry activists like Nelson and Jools are always wasting Faruque's time and letting Kermode get away with murder. What a sad state of affairs!!

--- In Sydney_TaxiCorruption@yahoogroups.com, "union_faruque" wrote:
Re: Dear Patricia

Beside the unintelligent and uninformed comment of `nobody', the Cabcharge is a proceed of CRIME and therefore all assets of Cabcharge should be confiscated by the good government immediately and utilized for public and workers' safety.

--- In Sydney_TaxiCorruption@yahoogroups.com, "union_faruque" wrote:

Dear Patricia

I have not received any further information beside your initial note below in response to my original correspondence.

With thanks


Faruque Ahmed
Friday, March 28, 2008

Subject: Removal of Cabcharge Decals from Taxis
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:53:31 +1100
From: "Infocentre" Add to Address Book

To: union_faruque@...

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr. Faruque,

Thank you for your email of 3 December 2007 to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) requesting the removal of Cabcharge decals from Taxis.

The role of the ACCC is to ensure compliance with the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA), which is designed to encourage fair trading and discourage anti-competitive conduct through a specific set of competition and consumer protection rules. It is only when there is a contravention of the TPA that there may be a role for the ACCC.

The information provided in your email has been passed on to the relevant area of the ACCC. You will only be contacted if further information is required.

As part of its role the ACCC also monitors emerging trends across consumer and business complaints to determine whether there is a pattern of behaviour by a particular trader or in a particular industry that requires attention. In this regard, your complaint has been recorded and is an important part of our ongoing analysis.

Thank you for contacting the ACCC with your concerns.


Yours sincerely



Patricia
ACCC Infocentre
1300 302 502

From: Faruque Ahmed [mailto:union_faruque@...] Sent: Sunday, 2 December 2007 7:35 PMTo: FOISubject: Removal of Cabcharge Decals from Taxis

Faruque Ahmed
P O Box – 349
Alexandria – 2015
Mobile: 041 091 4118
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Mr. Graeme Samuel

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission

GPO Box 3131

CANBERRA ACT 2601

Ph: 02 6243 1244Fax: 02 6243 1210

Email: foi@...

Re: Removal of Cabcharge Decals from Taxis

Dear Mr. Samuel,

I request that the ACCC move to take action forcing requirement that taxi entities be compelled to remove from surface areas of taxi cabs, decals proclaiming and advertising Cabcharge products.

Originally taxi cooperatives (not taxi companies or networks) obtained "the authorisation in contention" to subject workers in the taxi cab industry to perform for Cabcharge from the then Trades Practices Commission by not telling the truth, twisting the truth and using racism. Ultimately, the original applicants, specifically the Red and Yellow Deluxe have used many false claims "for their own narrow benefit" with impunity.

Fortunately this issue was largely dealt with to my satisfaction in TPC in matterA30152.

Since then, we have been asking the ACCC and other relevant departments to remove the Authorization A30112. Surprisingly, they are very reluctant about it.

Finally, in Matter No - 3 of 2005 of the Australian Competition Tribunal, Justice Goldberg and three other eminent Judges revoked the contentious authorization which gave the Cabcharge the "exclusive power" and "monopoly" in the first place. It is interesting to note that during the proceeding neither the taxi network nor the Cabcharge made representation as to the (their) case.

The fact is, the then TPC then made a mistake back in 1984- since then the Federal Competition Tribunal corrected the anomaly.

The ACCC used it's power, authority and creativity to compel all taxi owners of this country to display the Cabcharge decals and therefore accept the Cabcharge cards and dockets.

Now, the ACCC must do everything to remove the Cabcharge decals from all taxis as they are false advertisement and NOT legally required in the first place.

With thanks

Faruque Ahmed
Source: Sydney Taxi Corruption