Compliance and COVID Safety Update - Point to Point Transport Commissioner
- NSW Taxi Council
- Jan 4, 2022
- 4 min read
This blog post contains important industry information on the following:
Please click on each relevant title in the list above to read more
Commissioner’s End of Year Message
A message from the Point to Point Transport Commissioner, Anthony Wing.
2021 was an extraordinary year that saw the industry continue to work together to ensure public health and safer point to point transport in NSW.
To hear more from the NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner please watch the video below.
Commissioner's Annual Review for 2020/2021
The Commissioner's Annual Review for 20/21 has been published to our website. The Review contains information about our yearly operations, performance and key achievements.
Public Health Order Update
With the evolving COVID-19 situation and changes being announced by the Premier in response to Omicron COVID-19 outbreak, we want to make sure you are clear regarding your obligations under the Public Health Order and what you need to do to make sure every point-to-point ride is a COVID safe ride.
Masks remain compulsory for passengers and drivers in all point to point vehicles.
See the latest COVID news update for more information.
Let's make every ride a COVID safe ride
Have you seen our public facing campaign? One of the Commissioner’s focus priority areas is public health and ensuring that the point to point transport industry and passengers work together to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Our campaign reminds everyone that passengers and drivers must wear a mask, and ride safe when travelling in point to point transport vehicles. Look out for our message on taxi backs, at the airport, and via social media.
Also, please take the time to view our new driver videos. Nick, Geoffrey, Teresa and Mohsen share with us what they are doing to keep themselves and their passengers safe and make every ride a COVID safe ride.
Making sure everyone gets ho ho home safely
Fatigue Management
The festive season is traditionally a busy period for the point to point transport industry. More frequent shifts and more time on the road increases the risk of drivers becoming fatigued. Service providers must implement a fatigue management policy as a part of their Safety Management System. It is also a good time to remind drivers of their obligations to follow this policy and avoid driving tired.
Find out more about managing driver fatigue, including some useful information from the Centre for Road Safety in the Managing Driver Fatigue fact sheet. This can be easily shared or adapted for your drivers
Driver onboarding
New year, new you? Many people are looking forward to a new start in 2022. With evidence suggesting many people are looking for a new career as a point to point transport driver, we would like to remind service providers of their obligations to make sure all drivers have been appropriately onboarded and ongoing checks are being conducted.
As a provider of passenger services, you must take reasonable steps to understand your driver’s history and perform checks to confirm your eligibility to drive. It is also your responsibility to ensure that your drivers are aware of their safety obligations under the law.
Go to the Point to Point Transport Commissioner's website to find the online short course on Driver Management which helps service providers understand their obligations. There is also a Driver Onboarding and Management Toolkit available, that provides lots of helpful information and resources.
Not accepting a hiring
On a recent joint operation with NSW Police, the Point to Point Transport Commission's Authorised Inspectors found an unacceptable number of taxi drivers providing rank and hail passengers services not accepting a hiring.
Under the law, the driver of a taxi that is available for hire must accept a hiring immediately when offered. This means that a driver must accept a hiring immediately even if the fare is considered small or going in a direction that the driver would prefer not to go.
For more information on accepting and terminating hires, please see Point to Point Transport Commissioner's website.
Overcharging
Over the last few weeks, the Commission has received multiple complaints regarding taxi overcharging passengers or trying to over-charge passengers.
Complaints have included drivers charging more than what is on the fare calculation device (meter); demanding a fixed price, particularly from Sydney Airport; adding extra charges not on the meter, drivers refusing passengers who won’t agree to demands for a flat fare and refusing a hailing because the fare is too small.
Under the law, a person must not demand a fare for the provision of a service that -
(a) exceeds the amount of the fare determined for the service under a fares order, or
(b) contravenes arrangements for remuneration approved by a fares order.
Maximum penalty—100 penalty units ($11,000).
This means that taxi service providers and drivers are not allowed to charge anyone who catches a taxi from a taxi rank, or who hails a taxi from the street, more than the maximum fare, unless travelling out of the taxi service provider’s area of operation.
Further, once the rank and hail service has commenced, a visible fare calculation device (such as a meter) must be turned on and running throughout the passenger service.
For more information on taxi fare, visit the Transport NSW website.
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