Respect your Cabbie campaign

Driving a taxi on weekends and during the festive season can be anything but merry for cabbies, especially when passengers have had too much to drink. Antisocial behaviours (such as assault, theft and fare evasion) are unfortunately a common occurrence.

The Victorian Taxi Directorate (VTD) has launched a campaign called 'Respect your cabbie' to try to educate passengers that this behaviour is illegal and will not be tolerated. We want people's behaviour to change, so that cabbies are treated with respect.

The VTD placed racing-themed advertisements (PDF, 226 KB, 2 pp.) in rest rooms at and around Flemington Racecourse during the 2011 Spring Racing Carnival. Another suite of ads that asked passengers to save some cash for the ride home (PDF, 267 KB, 2 pp.) featured at Federation Square and in licensed venues around Melbourne, Frankston and Geelong during December 2011.

Another aspect of this campaign is to build stronger relationships between cabbies and passengers. To do this, we've filmed a video featuring taxi driver Yashan Singh. Yashan talks about his love of driving his taxi and his passion for cricket.

If you have any feedback about this campaign please email the VTD.