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Mex Cooper 

DISABLED taxi passengers are being left stranded or forced to wait for hours since the merger of Geelong's two major cab companies, it was claimed.

Thelma, 75, said a two-and-half-hour wait for a wheelchair taxi last week had left her depressed.

The North Geelong woman, who did not want her surname published, said a nurse at the Geelong Hospital booked her a cab at 3.30pm to pick her up at 6pm.

She didn't make it back home until about 8.30pm.

Barwon Disability Resource Council executive officer Carol Okai said many disabled people were reliant on taxis for everyday travel to work and social engagements.

She said the council had received complaints that the taxi service for disabled passengers had slumped since Radio Cabs and Bay City Cabs joined to form Geelong Taxi Network in March.

Since the merger, calls made to the Network after 6pm or on weekends and public holidays get bounced from the Geelong call centre to Melbourne and Ms Okai said the complaints coincided with these times.

Geelong Taxi Network chief executive Peter Valentine said he would meet the council today.

Mr Valentine said he was investigating Thelma's complaint and acknowledged possible teething problems with new systems.

He said the firm had doubled its wheelchair taxi fleet and last year  introduced training for drivers of wheelchair accessible taxis.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2007/05/07/3508_news.html