The NSW Taxi Council has engaged Steve Tomvold to co-ordinate the expansion of the Taxi Voucher Scheme across the Sydney Metropolitan area.

Steve, is well-known in the Industry for his efforts on Supervised Ranks and at Sydney Airport. Under his new role, he will visit venues, identify problems, and of course find solutions.

All networks will shortly be participating in the scheme and drivers are well aware of the advantages of accepting bookings on vouchers.

For drivers using the Sigtec system, a voucher job is shown as follows:

The M Code is B and that can be clearly seen on the screen at the time of accepting the job.

For those using the Raywood system, the jobs are displayed as follows:

How the Voucher Scheme Works

When a patron asks a participating club, pub or hotel to book them a taxi, they must first show ID which is recorded on the butt of a voucher.

The taxi is then booked and the number on the voucher is used for the booking rather than the passenger’s name. The patron is then given the voucher to present to the driver.

If the passenger does a runner or misbehaves in the taxi their details can be chased up with the venue.

The scheme was first introduced nearly 2 years ago in western and south-western Sydney to assist in reducing crimes against taxi drivers and a shortage of late night public transport options. Since the scheme has started, drivers picking up from participating venues have not reported a single major incident involving disputes with passengers. It works!