Media release
10 July 2020
The Taxi Council of Queensland (TCQ) has congratulated the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) and the Federal Government on launching the Go Local First campaign, encouraging the Australian community to support their local small businesses.
The Australian taxi industry comprises over 70,000 small businesses, providing essential transportation services to their local communities. The taxi industry is represented on COSBOA by its national peak body, the Australian Taxi Industry Association (ATIA). TCQ is a member of the ATIA.
“Like many other industries comprised of small businesses, the taxi industry has been doing it very tough during the COVID-19 pandemic. As small businesses, our members just don’t have the endless reserves of money behind them to wait out the pandemic. We definitely need communities across Queensland to take on board the message behind the Go Local First campaign, and to use their local taxi service when needing to travel from A to B,” said TCQ CEO, Blair Davies.
“COSBOA’s campaign is a timely one. The closing of Australia’s borders has proved a very useful reminder of how valuable a level of self-sufficiency can be and how important local business providers are in that regard. Buying a ‘cheap’ product or service online or from an overseas platform may come at a surprisingly high cost, if it ends up putting your local small business operator out of business,” said Mr Davies.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the importance of buying locally into much better focus. In the personalised transport sector, we saw regular taxi services continue to make themselves available for hire, even during the times of greatest restrictions on movement and gatherings. It probably wasn’t viable to be on the road at the time but our cabbies’ commitment to serve their local communities made sure that services remained available to everyone that needed them.”
“As Queensland emerges from the pandemic, and more and more of our fair weather friends in the other segments of the personalised transport sector return onto the road to offer services, there is a clear choice for consumers as to which service to support. We simply ask the community to remember to Go Local First when making those buying decisions,” said Mr Davies.
Queensland’s cabbies proudly remained on call 24/7 during the height of the COVID-19 crisis and they continue to stand ready to provide safe and reliable transport for their local communities now in the emerging recovery.
ENDS