CABBIES and rideshare drivers who are doing the wrong thing are being targeted in a transport blitz.
An operation against dodgy drivers began last month and dished out almost 200 fines.
“In recent months, my office saw a big jump in the number of complaints against taxi drivers for fare refusal, and overcharging,” transport minister Mark Bailey said.
“We launched a new round of targeted operations last month and the team did almost one thousand intercepts, handing out fines of varying amounts up to $575 to 181 drivers accused of doing the wrong thing.
“To see that around one in five drivers have been doing the wrong thing is completely unacceptable, and so we’ll be ramping up this operation even further over the Christmas and New Year period.
“Taxi drivers will be caught if they try and refuse fares or rip people off.
“And rideshare drivers will be caught if they tout for fares roadside and take trips that are not pre-booked.
“We’ll be conducting covert operations at all times of the day, so when a passenger gets in a taxi at 3am, the driver should expect it to be an enforcement officer, and they’ll be caught out if they do the wrong thing.”
Mr Bailey called on the taxi drivers to do the right thing.
“I acknowledge the industry has faced increased costs, which is why we gave taxis the ability to increase the maximum fare earlier this year, and they have access to things like taxi ranks and lift payments under the taxi subsidy scheme which ride share service don’t,” he said.
“We’ve also delivered a $100 million industry assistance package as part of the personalised transport reforms, alongside $23 million in support payments for taxi and limousine operators and licence holders and fee relief for the personalised transport industry during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re also providing ongoing assistance to taxi operators to replace aging and written off wheelchair accessible taxis totaling $21 million.
“We’re doing what we can to support the industry, but I’m calling on taxi and rideshare drivers to step up and follow the rules that are in place.
“If they don’t, we’ll have no hesitation in handing out fines of up to $5,750.”
Mr Bailey said customers are entitled to insist their taxi driver turns on the meter, and drivers cannot demand a set fare.
“We ask for people to report any taxi driver who refuses to turn on their meter when asked.”
Mr Bailey also reminded rideshare users to book their service through the app.
