Thank you to all dear friends and supporters, for supporting this petition, on 24th May 2017, the members of CITIZENS FOR CHANGE, represented by Armando Gonsalves, Joe Gomes, Avelino D'Sa and Mousinho Reis, visited our CM, Mr. Manohar Parriker at his office at Altinho, Panaji at around 8PM to follow up on the petition for Taxi Revolution in Goa. We brought to his attention overwhelming support on social media for app based cab hailing service with competition from established vendors as the only viable choice. Mr Parrikar simply said that he was due to meet the taxi lobby around mid June, that everything needs to be done at the right time. He said that even in cricket, a batsman waits patiently for a loose delivery and then scores a boundary. Likewise, he too will score at an appropriate moment. It was not clear who the bowler would be. The taxi lobby? Or the citizens of Goa. THE CLEAR CHOICE: In the social media majority have asked for "competition" from aggregators OLA/UBER. This cashless option is the only option that provides zero corruption besides tax collection that can be used for the much needed expansion of public transport. A Taxi app requires crores of rupees of investment to develop from scratch and Goa government has clearly stated there is no budget. Any investment in taxi app will be passed on to consumer making fares go even higher. A developed app can never match the established players in terms of algorithms and innovation, besides it requires a competent organization with its own operations staff, documentation, training, customer service, RTO compliance, server hosting, seamless software updates, etc. This will take a few years while at the same time there is time & money lost on a daily basis. Going by track record, the govt & taxi association have never agreed on a the simple number - the fare rate per kilometer for decades. Let them not fool us again with taxi app. Digital meters are obsolete and won't give us the convenience of ordering taxi on smartphone app. After few weeks they will find the same old excuse that meter is not working. Here again, the driver can take you on a much longer route and there is no rider feedback. The taxi meters will be a maintenance burden. THE CURRENT STATUS: The taxi mafia has grown so big and there are open threats to various people on social media. Taxi union has made their own draconian laws which have been accepted by the local people, hotel industry and tourists. Various Governments we had in Goa for last 2 decades have ignored this issue in spite of Tourism being core business. The taxi uprising has been there for some time but government has never bothered to reduce the power of the taxi association. The mediator for union has been making comments using vague logic. Government can systematically reduce the power of the mafia using the possible solutions below. This is based on rules of Audit which states that everyone including Administration are suspect until proven otherwise. Let us all help our government with our collective wisdom, please provide additional solutions. This will reduce opposition to world class system Goans need as per MV bill guidelines. There is no point in sending 16 satellites into space if the common man cannot use the technology. PREPAID TAXI FARE CHART: At Dabolim airport the prepaid taxi fare chart distances shown are higher by about 30% for e.g. Dabolim to Margao is based on 34kms v/s actual is 26kms. These distanced and fares should be corrected immediately and until this is done all passengers who retain receipts past and future should be refunded for the fare difference. FREQUENT SHUTTLES FROM AIRPORT: The only shuttle on the schedule is planned so well that after the Navy slot, even before passengers pick up the bags and come out, the bus leaves airport. There should be frequent shuttles from/to airport with multiple trips to Panaji/Margao/Calangute, etc. Schedule should be for optimum load. Every bus reduces number of vehicles on road/accidents. Also reduces people's "obligation" to pick up and drop guests from airport. AWARENESS SESSION TO TAXI DRIVERS: It's definitely not issue of livelihood for 7000 taxi drivers, other cities have drivers much better off with Ola/UBER and will live a much more decent life and that too without the guilt of being part of union. It seems some of the old Goan taxi drivers have become owners and have hired outsiders for their fleet. Outsiders don’t consider Goa as their motherland and resort to violence to avoid competition. Taxi Union/Govt should facilitate awareness seminars from OLA/UBER so they have the correct information. This will also provide feedback from taxi drivers. We suggested this to the mediator for union he disappeared and never replied. LAZY LIVING: The comments indicate that taxi drivers make just one trip a day and work for 2-3 hours charging customer in thousands and enjoy the rest of the day, don’t have to work next day. Public should be advised to make all payments through payment system with official receipts so that there is some deterrence and accountability. TAXI IS SIDE BUSINESS: It seems that union has assigned taxi drivers to hotels - to be verified. These are possible links into drugs and prostitution. This link takes a new dimension to taxi business making it a small side business. If true, this should be banned. THOU SHALL NOT KIDNAP THY GUEST: There are too many complaints that friends & relatives are prevented form picking up guests because "they may kidnap their guests". Their car tires have been slashed and hotel management is helpless and cannot lookup to enforcement for the guest's ruined vacation. Even as their customer will never return. To sum up, all this is not Goykarponn, is it justified to worry about the livelihood of this driver ?. There may be some bad apples, but the Goa Govt should ban any taxi driver against whom there are some formal complaints from hotel guests. HEAT MAP OF MULTIPLE TAXI OWNERS: The taxi union secretaries are misguiding the 7000 taxi drivers so both union and drivers together can continue with their exorbitant fares. There may be a LIMITED number of people who own a number of taxis. Data analysis with heat map will make it possible to locate addresses with multiple licenses, fake names, etc. An independent organization/volunteers could be assigned this task. As per policy the benefit of licensed vehicles should be distributed across wider population. TOURISM FEEDBACK: Taxi is the backbone of our only surviving business - Tourism which has evolved with digital age - where people are depending less on word of mouth and more on forums & social media for ratings. With enough evidence of declining tourism, and last month's exposure of Taxi, collecting feedback is more important than marketing. While marketing is done using public funds the customer is looted right from the airport by well-organized gang of thieves. More than half the Goan population is directly or indirectly affected by this business. Government should collect feedback from tourists on public transport, taxi, cleanliness, etc and most importantly if they would recommend to anybody or come back on future visits. PUBLISH NAMES OF OWNERS OF TAXI LICENSES: Publish names of owners of taxi licenses, so public could identify multiple taxi owners who are vested interests. AVOID TAKING TAXI: People should drop/pickup friends, and make a cultural change to avoid feeding into taxi system as this is a threat to Goan society. COMMENT ON THIS POST: Please provide suggestions comment on this petition update/post. ANONYMOUS COMMENT FROM PUBLIC: If anyone has any suggestion and would like to remain anonymous please provide anonymous comment in the URL below. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KQaMlnZSTdQ39LP2re2tzKHjTeucCrMKBr2QOQbvKLw News Articles: 23 May 2017 Goa to take up taxi fares issue next month http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/goa-to-take-up-taxi-fares-issue-next-month-117052301096_1.html 24 May 2017 Goa moves to rationalize taxi fares http://digitalgoa.com/govt-to-start-discussion-with-taxi-operators-next-month-on-fare-issue/ 24 May 2017 Goa to start discussion with taxi operators next month on fare issue http://digitalgoa.com/govt-to-start-discussion-with-taxi-operators-next-month-on-fare-issue/ 24 May 2017 Finally Goa Taxi fares to be regulated and rationalised http://www.itsgoa.com/goa-taxi-fares-regulated-rationalised-finally/ 26 May 2016 Pulling Goan Taximen out of cosy mould http://epaper.navhindtimes.in/NewsDetail.aspx?storyid=8025&date=2017-05-26&pageid=1 27 May 2017 Taxi owners reject service on the lines of Ola, Uber http://www.navhindtimes.in/taxi-owners-reject-service-on-the-lines-of-ola-uber/