How much to where? An examination of the recent increase in Taxi Fares Part 2: A complete lack of data.

In part 1 of this analysis, I used the data that I could find on the old and new taxi fares to see if there are any trends that I could find in the data that could point to a rationale behind the change. You can see the first post on this page but the cliff notes are:

1. There is a general decrease in the cost per km of the new fares as the total distance of the journey increases.
2. There appears to be a “frequency fee” added to some short trips ( Airport to Coverley, Bridgetown Harbour to City Centre) in an attempt to maximize yields from the high frequency of these trips.
3. From 1 and 2 the rationale could be to streamline the rates while allowing for the increase.

In this part, I will tackle the last question that I posed to myself: Was there a better way to do this?

Well.. Was There?

This is a very difficult question to answer in Barbados, especially where data transparency is a foreign word. At this point, I’m unsure that any analysis was done on the market or with the taxi drivers to understand the market that existed before the changes were made.

What would this ‘analysis’ entail?

To get a decent picture of the state of the taxi market and by extension the entirety of the private transport sector, a market analysis would have to be done. This analysis would entail the following:

1. Diagnosing the major players in the market (sole proprietors, travel companies etc.). This would lead to more questions such as market share breakdowns.
2. Tourist market analysis (How much of a tourist’s budget is being spent on travel? How much are they willing to spend?) This leads to tourist categorization, with the potential to tailor products to particular groups of tourists.
3. Taxi travel analysis (Where do they go most often?) How many trips a day in high/low season? Trip speed/turnaround time) This would help immensely with the creation of rates as one would be able to truly understand the plight of the operators and find critical reasons as to why they are not profitable (Confounding factors, market saturation etc.)

Now, I don’t have any proof whatsoever that this work hasn’t been done. Recently, there has been talk of having a metering system for taxi operators which would greatly help with collecting data on the average number of trips, the most lucrative trips, and their distances. Assuming that no market analysis was conducted in relation to this decision would cast the powers that be in a negative light. However, there isn’t a clear line between the decisions made and the outcomes.

The initial plight of the taxi operators at the harbour highlights a glimmering truth. In a world where one button press and a single phrase can tell you that the nearest beach on the island you have just arrived on is a brisk twenty-minute walk away, taxi operators might need to upgrade their value proposition because the increase in fares won’t ease their plight.