For Morwell Taxis owner Godson Poomoottil, vandalism and destruction of his cabs is a regular occurrence.
Two weeks ago, Poomoottil discovered two of his cars with their number plates ripped off. Often, he’ll return to a parked up cab in a public street and find the taxi dome lights have been completely smashed.
“We put all 13 cars on the road and try to do our best, but when these kinds of things happen, it doesn’t only affect myself as an owner, it impacts the whole community,” Poomoottil told the Monitor.
Growing despite it all: When Poomoottil took over the business in December, the company had six cabs. He has expanded that to 13, but vandalism of his fleet remains a consistent problem.
Worse still, the natural fluctuation of business that comes with running a taxi company can lead to unexpected floods of trip requests – and having cars taken off the road because of reckless vandalism only limits the service he can provide to residents.
“There are a lot of elderly people in Morwell who rely on Morwell Taxis to go to the doctors or to visit their family,” Poomoottil said. “When cabs are taken off the road, they get frustrated.”
There have been 1,246 property damage offences in Latrobe City so far this year, which is already a 12.25 percent increase compared to five years ago, according to the Crime Statistics Agency.
Next town over: Traralgon Taxis owner and driver Matt McLure told the Monitor spikes in damage to cabs comes and goes.
“We had a period four or five years ago when people were pinching headrests and fire extinguishers out of our maxi taxis around every weekend for a few months.”
Transport options: The local Morwell bus routes operate from around 6am to 7pm. If a Morwell resident doesn’t own a car and wants to travel outside those hours, taxis or a rideshare service like Uber are the only services available.
No quick fix: When a cab has its number plate torn off, Poomoottil said replacing it isn’t as simple as just ordering a new one.
Unlike regular plates, Safe Transport Victoria has to approve applications for new taxi number plates and that process takes up to 10 days, which hamstrings Poomoottil’s business.
“We have a number of taxis taken off the road due to crime and it’s losing income for me and my drivers.”
Another common occurrence Poomoottil has to deal with is stolen or smashed taxi dome lights.
“I came out one morning recently and looked at one of my cars and saw the dome light was missing. I looked on the road and it had been smashed all over the road.”
Poomoottil has also been shown CCTV footage of drivers going through nearby gas stations with his stolen dome lights on the roof of their cars.