7/30/2009 - by Stewart Carter
Melbourne taxi operators are now not the only ones to have a simple, safe and inexpensive online service allowing them to buy and sell licenses.

So some readers might find it surprising that taxi operators would trust a publicly accessible Internet service as a safe enough place for selling such valuable licenses.

And it was a brave move by the Victorian government back in 2006 when it passed a law requiring all Melbourne taxi license sales to be done and registered at an online site.

But two years on, the online marketplace setup for buying and selling Melbourne metropolitan taxi licenses at http://www.bsxtaximarket.com.au/, has clearly been a success and earned the trust of taxi operators. More than $300million worth of transactions have flowed through the exchange since it was first set up. With direct participation in the Exchange restricted to a small set of fifteen or so licensed taxi brokers, the online service has proved to be a safe and innovative way of facilitating the sale and transfer of taxi licenses. It also provides readily accessible historical market data showing how much taxi licenses are selling for, and how often they are sold.

The market even supports the trading of temporary assignments of licenses. Currently, the asking price for a licence available to be leased for 3 years is just over $2000 a month). In fact so successful has the Melbourne online taxi marketplace been that its developers/operators, the Bendigo Stock Exchange, are now rolling out a very similar service as a national online taxi license exchange. Its early days at the National Licence Exchange (NLX) however, with only two brokers yet accredited. Kevin Dunn is one of those two brokers. He’s also the managing director of Frankston Radio Cabs . And Frankston Radio Cabs is one of the first cab co-op’s to take advantage of the service. It has a taxi license listed for sale on the new national exchange.

Its a conventional outer suburban license and the asking price is $475,000 which includes a compulsory share in the Frankston Radio Cabs co-op. Dunn told NSX Limited, licensed operator of both the National Stock Exchange of Australia and the Bendigo Stock Exchange that the new service was very welcome.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to gain investment from a broader base. In an extremely competitive business environment, listing our licenses on NLX is a clear winner. It gives our shareholders a professional option when developing their exit strategy after, in most cases, a lifetime in the Taxi industry.” For more information go to

www.nlx.com.au
www.bsxtaximarket.com.au
www.nsxa.com.au
www.bsx.com.au
www.nsx.com.au