Submission to the Independant Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal review of maximum fares for rank and hail taxi services
20 September 2024
For people with disability, access to accessible public transport is essential, to enable travel to work, education, essential services and recreation. Many parts of NSW are not served by trains, light rail or accessible busses and people with disability rely on taxis to provide public transport for the whole of journey, or the 'last mile' connection between public transport services and their destination.
When we reached out to our members, they raised the issues of:
- Taxi drivers refusing to carry folded wheelchairs
- The unavailability of accessible taxis
- Taxi drivers refusing jobs that involve tying down wheelchairs
- Wheelchair accessible taxis not turning up• Taxi drivers refusing jobs they deem to be 'too short'
- Persistent problems with accessible taxis going back to the early 2000's
- Taxi drivers refusing to carry passengers from interstate who do not have the NSW card
- The unavailability of accessible taxis in many parts of NSW
- The unreliability of accessible taxis and the impact of this for people trying to attend appointments, work, education and social events
PWDA appreciates that a lot has changed since IPART last reviewed taxi fares in 2018. Taxi licenses cost far less to apply for and are not limited to a specific area of operations. Fuel, repair and other costs associated with running a taxi have increased, as have the living costs and pressures on drivers.
Recommendations:
Recommendation 1 - Enable taxi and ride-share drivers to access a payment for the loading, storing and unloading of assistive equipment for people with disability who are able to transfer to an ordinary vehicle seat
Recommendation 2 - Trial 'mystery shop' style audits by government, where fines could be issued for drivers who refuse fares, cancel trips or whose behaviour fails to meet acceptable inclusion standards
Recommendation 3 - Reserve the fines revenue to use to fund a monthly prize draw for drivers with one entry in the draw per trip carrying a person with disability who gets a fare subsidy, and a second entry per trip if good customer feedback is given
Recommendation 4 - Develop design templates and guidance for taxi and rideshare drop-off areas and share these with Local Councils to ensure that sufficient allocation of bays and dimensions are provided in the places they are needed
Recommendation 5 – The development of short videos featuring people with different disabilities, on key topics, that could be used to educate all drivers
