Potential to regularising the minibus-taxi industry : a position paper

Papers presented virtually at the 41st International Southern African Transport Conference on 10-13 July 2041The minibus-taxi industry is the largest public transport mode in Cape Town and South Africa. Estimates vary but as of 2020 the National Household Transport Survey showed that minibus-taxis carried 83% of public transport passengers. Despite its importance as a mode of public transport to South African commuters the minibus-taxi remains an uncontracted and unsubsidised service, with passengers commonly citing overcrowding and safety as problems. Illegal operations, oversubscribed routes and violent competition between minibus-taxi associations are endemic. Maximising passenger numbers to generate profit (as opposed to maintaining a schedule) encourages unsafe driving. As such, minibus-taxis are generally cheaper with their fares compared to formal subsided services such as bus and rail. They also have the ability to undercut and therefore compete for passengers. Finally, the ability of taxi association leaders to extract fees from members encourages ever-expanding association membership, while government, for its part, has struggled to regulate the industry effectively. This position paper suggests ways to regularise the taxi industry, including changes to existing business models through formalisation and collective operational management, regulatory interventions and leveraging innovative technologies to collect the data needed to better understand conditions on the ground and improve decision-making. It is also important that government’s ability to enforce the law is continually strengthened. Over time, these interventions are anticipated to lead to a system which aligns incentives, regulations, and enforcement to improve outcomes

New minibus-taxi initiatives in the city of cape town

Papers presented virtually at the 41st International Southern African Transport Conference on 10-13 July 2023.The City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Directorate is implementing a new range of innovative initiatives aiming to formalise, improve and integrate minibus-taxi services into its Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN). The implementation of previous minibustaxi industry transition initiatives undertaken by the City were the building blocks to the advancement of minibus-taxi transformation strategies, which this paper intends to expand on. While some of these ideas and concepts have been presented previously, they have since been developed further and are now rapidly advancing, which includes the implementation of MyCiTi Metro South East Corridor (Phase 2A), connecting the Claremont/Wynberg area to the suburbs in the Metro South East of Cape Town. This paper provides a review of the progress made on a range of minibus-taxi reform initiatives the City is implementing and will further provide context as to how they aim to improve and formalise the MBT industry, by amongst other, integrating the operators into a bus rapid transit (BRT) system. It is worth noting that some of the initiatives discussed have not commenced or are in progress, meaning that the end result has not yet materialised. Reflecting on the City of Cape Town's Industry Transition processes, it provides for an excellent opportunity to involve current MBT operators as partners in ensuring an improved public transportation network for all