Only last week the problem of taxis in Port Douglas reared it's head again. This time Port Douglas's local paper, owned by Rupert Murdoch's national giant News Liimited,  used a survey specially conducted by James Cook University and commisssioned  by TPDD as the basis of their article about transport in this area but much to the embarrassment of Mr Doug Ryan, Executive Office of TPDD, they got it all wrong.

Contrary to the article the JCU survey reported in fact that the local transport services around Port Douglas were above average with a total score of 3.2 out of 5 (2.5 obviously being average).

Mr Ryan from TPDD actually had to go on Port Douglas Radio in a commendable effort to correct the furore that this error had created.  He set the record straight by preseenting the correct figures in his interview with Micahel Gabour on the morning show.

It's no wonder Sun Palm owner Alan Hamilton went off the deep end at the erroneous article.  "It's bad enough to get criticism when we are getting it wrong but when we are shown to be above average by an independent report and we still get stick,  it's just too much" he said. "The report quite clearly states that our taxi service is adequate and equivalent to any response time in Australia"

Mr Hamilton told Newsport Daily, "I'm very much aware of the peak time problems that having only two taxi's in town can generate but with the taxi licenses at $400,000 each it is just not economically viable to have more than two taxis operating for a town of this size both geographically and population".

However the good news that Mr Hamilton can announce, which was apparently omitted from the recent article,  is that Sun Palm Transport has come up with a 'smart' solution to try to ease the problem.  Alan has just bought a company called Smart Car Australia which has a pre-booking limousine service between 6.00am to midnight each day with a fixed tariff for marked areas in Port Douglas. This service is the same price as the equivalent taxi service.

"Sun Palm has taken the initiative to provide this service at peak times with a pre-booked service which is within the legal framework of the State" he said.  "With this service we can ensure that there will be enough cars available to cope with the high traffic demands that can occur when there is, for example, more than one big event being held in town or at the end of the night when the two taxis are running backwards and forwards and delays are bound to occur".

"These cars cannot be sent instead of a taxi and they cannot be hailed like a taxi, that is against the law.  But all people have to do to take advantage of this new service is ring the advertised number and pre-book this service.  It will be the same price as a normal taxi, in fact in some cases it may even be cheaper!"

Mr Hamilton also advised us that the Sun Palm local bus service has had a corporate livery change.  "We've painted the front of all our local buses with an orange panel.  This makes our buses easily identifiable, so returning passengers don't get confused between services and also any passengers waiting for a bus will know the running timetable for Sun Palm Buses".

"We are consistently trying to find ways to improve the transport service in Port Douglas", Mr Hamilton assured us.  "We don't need the local paper bagging us out everytime they get a letter to the editor whether it's justified or not.  We have our own complaints system should it be needed and we take every comment seriously.  If something goes wrong, we deal with it, firmly, fairly and efficiently.  So if visitors or locals should need to contact us, everyone knows our number."

Mr Hamilton has suggested that all our readers make a note of the new Smart Cars telephone number of 1300 1300 2076 to ensure their wait, from now on, is as short as possible.