Senior Australian of the Year 2022 for the NT Robyne Burridge is booked for two months with speaking engagements and appearances. But whether she arrives is in the hands of the taxi gods.
Disability advocate Mrs Burridge is totally reliant on taking wheelchair accessible taxis on a daily basis.
"You ring up a taxi company, and they say they've got one in the area, but 20 minutes later, they haven't been able to get through to it," she said.
"There are times I simply haven't been picked up. It's in an absolute mess, and everyone is suffering.
Mrs Burridge has complained to the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Board and has requested to meet with NT Transport Minister Eva Lawler.
The largest local taxi company is Darwin Radio Taxis, with a network of 89 cars.
Managing director Imran Nadeem said he could only get about 60 drivers on the road.
In the fleet, 29 cars are wheelchair accessible.
"We might have a maximum of 15 wheelchair-accessible cars on the road at any one time, but at night-time, that number goes even lower because of the crime rate," he said.
Hard to retain drivers due to border closures
Mr Nadeem said there were compounding problems for the industry, including the absence of a government-mandated tariff rate increase in almost a decade, so drivers couldn't increase their salary.
At the time of the interview, he said there were about 30 passengers waiting for cabs at the Darwin Airport rank.
"And that's common. It's becoming harder and harder because we don't have drivers," Mr Nadeem said.
"The majority of drivers are from abroad: students, migrants, and their partners.
"Because the borders have been closed, it's restricted the amount of taxi drivers in the last few years.
"They've graduated, or upskilled and moved into other jobs."
Ridesharing compounding problems
Mr Nadeem estimated he had lost 20 per cent of his drivers to rideshare companies since 2018.
He doesn't blame the drivers.
"They work the peak times when they get surge pricing, and we're left to pick up what's left," he said.
Rideshares cannot access NT subsidies and incentives for disabled passengers or accept BasicsCards.
"[Rideshare] has been good for customers, but it's had a negative effect for our long grass [itinerant] and Indigenous communities and wheelchair users because they rely on us," he said.
"They are 60 per cent of our business.
"We're going to have a big problem transporting Indigenous and disabled passengers in the future."
He said an extra 60 to 80 drivers would ease the situation.
Mr Nadeem said he had expected the government's taxi review into commercial passenger vehicles to be published at the end of last year.
Government says it's working to improve situation
NT Transport Minister Eva Lawler said her department was considering the review recommendations.
"We want to make sure our public transport, ridesharing and taxis are accessible for all Territorians," she said.
"The review examined the quality of services being delivered to the public, including the disability sector, and made recommendations aimed at ensuring the Northern Territory has a modern, customer-focused commercial passenger vehicle industry, with high-quality services being delivered to the disability sector.
Limited wheelchair rideshare taxis
A handful of rideshare companies operate in the NT can accommodate folding wheelchairs.
Those that responded, Uber and Sheba, said their cars could not take large wheelchairs.
An Uber spokesperson said the company did consider those low on vision and hearing, using technology such as wireless Braille display compatibility and vibrating alerts.
