Daniel Morrissey
SYDNEY: Macquarie Bank Ltd begins tackling Australia's biggest taxi company next week when it opens a taxi service, and the payments system the investment bank will use is attracting interest around the world.
Better known for its deal-making and its investment funds in airports, toll roads, property, broadcasters and utilities, Macquarie has drawn fire from Cabcharge Australia Ltd, which owns Sydney's biggest taxi service, Taxis Combined. Macquarie, which manages assets of A$150 billion ($113 billion), will begin piloting its Lime Taxis service on Monday.
Using Mercedes Vito people-movers, Lime Taxis is aimed at transporting people with disabilities, but anyone can use it.
"We are not just merchant bankers that are working with spreadsheets," said Stephen Albin, the chief executive of Macquarie's Lime Taxis and whose father is a taxi driver.
Albin, a former lobbyist who also worked in property and tourism before joining Macquarie three years ago, said 5 percent of Sydney's taxis were designed to take people in wheelchairs.
"I don't want to cannibalise the existing cab industry," Albin said in an interview. "What I want to do is grow the industry."
The idea for Lime Taxis was developed by Bill Moss, a senior Macquarie executive who has muscular dystrophy, trucking magnate Lindsay Fox and John Brown, a former federal tourism minister.
Macquarie will roll out 20 Lime-liveried taxis a month that have been fitted out with lifts to easily pick up people in wheelchairs. The cabs also have all the trimmings and gadgets: leather seats, wood panels, video screens and security cameras.
Each diesel-powered car costs Australian dollar 93,000 and there will be about 160 on the road by March. There are 5,000 taxis in Sydney. The Lime taxis will be owned by franchises.
The taxis will use a 'live' payments system that utilises Macquarie's financial transaction skills and the wireless dispatch technology of Digital Dispatch Systems Inc.
"The payments system has attracted a lot of interest around the world," Albin said. "We've had expressions of interest from the United States in particular."
Other taxi companies around the world were using similar wireless technology, but they did not have the payments system that was also linked to bookings and dispatch, Albin said. "The payments system is where you can make money," he said.
The bank can make a service fee on each transaction. Albin said Macquarie has invested A$10 million into Lime Taxis, a drop in the ocean for Australia's biggest investment bank.
"We want to see a return on that money," he said. Cabcharge, which has its own payments system, has described Macquarie's move into taxis as flawed, saying the proposal cannot succeed without a critical mass of owners and drivers.
