The state’s laws allow independent taxi drivers to overcharge “without checks and balances”. But nowhere in Australia seems to have a perfect system
Victorian taxi drivers have little recourse if they are overcharged or denied fares, Australia’s taxi giant says, as it joins a host of industry figures in calling for action to end a national crisis of rogue taxi drivers.
There has been a patchwork of regulations from state to state since jurisdictions rewrote their laws to deal with the rise of ride-sharing. But 13Cabs, which has more than 8,000 vehicles across the country under its brands including Silver Service, echoed the concerns of the Victorian Taxi Association (VTA), singling out the state’s laws as the most rampant for illegal overcharging.
Most worryingly in Victoria, laws have allowed independent drivers to work in the industry without joining a network since 2017.
This means that bad-behaving drivers who have been fired by a company for not meeting standards or following complaints can work independently without having to abide by the vehicle or behavioral requirements set by the company to maintain its reputation.
In addition, passengers who want to file a complaint against an independent taxi cannot go to the complaints department or even search for the company name.
Instead, customers must collect the driver’s details and lodge a complaint with state watchdog Transport Safety Victoria.
Calls for a crackdown on independent drivers followed an incident at Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station last week where police had to be called out to force a group of uncooperative taxi drivers to turn on their meters, according to Guardian Australia. Industry insiders believe this proves Victoria’s safe transport plan is ineffective.
Transport Safety Victoria reportedly has just three officers to police the state’s 110,000 taxi and rideshare drivers, but the agency would not confirm this. It also would not confirm the number of fines it issued for overcharging – which can cost close to $2,000.
Multiple passengers contacted Guardian Australia to report that their complaints to the agency had gone nowhere and that making claims was difficult compared with states such as New South Wales, which have a taxi complaints hotline.
Common complaints are drivers refusing to take short trips or turning on the meter (which is required by law), instead insisting on charging high upfront fares.
The Romanian Transport Authority also claimed that taxi drivers were aware that Uber customers only took taxis during peak hours when faced with Uber’s “surge prices,” prompting some drivers to demand higher fares to replicate the benefits of surge prices.
In a recent incident outside Flinders Street Station, Melbourne resident Cam Watts approached 16 taxis at the station one evening, seeking a ride for a short trip. Watts said none of the taxis were willing to take him on a meter, and some would not even prepay because they said the journey was too short.
“Obviously they are hoping that the surge in people will increase the likelihood of long-distance passengers or passengers willing to pay a premium,” he said.
Jenny Benson, one of Melbourne’s first female taxi drivers in the 1960s, was in Melbourne last week, arriving at the taxi rank on Swanston Street outside the station. She boarded an independent taxi, the brand name of which the Guardian was unable to locate.
“He refused to let us get on the bus until we paid $37 in cash for the roughly one-kilometer ride,” said Benson, 83. “We were in our 80s and too tired after the long train ride to ask the question,” she said, adding that the same trip the next day cost $11 using a taximeter.
Complaints of illegal overcharging are not just coming from independent drivers, but taxi networks as well.
But David Samuel, 13Cabs’ director of public affairs, said that while the company would fire drivers after a second offense, those drivers would often continue to drive independently to protect the company’s reputation.
He told Guardian Australia: “The independent taxi situation in other states is not as bad as it is in Victoria.
“The system rewards the worst performing employees. It puts pressure on companies like ours to implement these safety and fatigue management systems to ensure the customer experience is good.”
“But we said those drivers can no longer drive under our brand because they are not providing a good service and are going out and operating independently and behaving just as badly, which is undermining consumer confidence in taxis.”
Samuel called it a “huge loophole in the legislation”.
“We get complaints internally, but who do you call if an independent driver overcharges you? There are no checks and balances.”
Mr Samuel said he was not opposed to measures such as the complaints hotline in NSW, but 13Cabs wanted to address the root causes of Victoria’s problems, including better monitoring of independent driver compliance and stricter regulations.
The company is also enthusiastic about new meter technology. Samuel hopes that states will require meters to be connected to card readers so that payment terminals don’t spit out false surcharges.
“If you go to Woolworths and at the checkout it says ‘you need to pay us $60’ there’s a payment terminal there.
“But in the taxi industry, we have a second payment terminal that is not connected to the meter, which can show that the purchase is not actually $60 but $160, and if the driver enters those amounts .. we want to ban this practice.”
Samuel also said there needed to be greater enforcement of the requirement to turn on the meter and suggested drivers who refused to turn on the meter should be banned from driving.
“You can’t create a situation where everyone is racing to get the next car. These drivers are preying on people,” he said.
He admitted, “There will always be actors who don’t follow the rules.
However, as governments scramble to legalize ride-sharing, laws are constantly changing across the country, meaning no single state has a perfect ride-sharing system.
While NSW’s 2017 deregulation did not remove the requirement for drivers to join a network, as Victoria did, the state did away with a centralised database of wrongdoing, so drivers fired by one company can find work at another without their bosses ever knowing.
The NSW government has since pledged to show employers infringement and court appearance data on an industry dashboard. But NSW Taxi Council chief executive Nick Abrahim has called for a return to the previous central register of certified drivers, which would include more information, such as all conduct complaints and disciplinary actions against drivers.
The state’s new watchdog, the NSW Peer-to-Peer Commission, conducts undercover compliance checks at major events and has issued about 900 fines in two years. Its hotline for following up on complaints has successfully refunded 2,500 in the same period.
Last year, NSW increased fines for overcharging or refusing to charge from $300 to $1,000, but repeat drivers are still being found. Figures obtained by the Guardian under freedom of information laws show more than 220 drivers ignored their initial fines and broke the law again within a year.
New “two-offense strike” laws are now in place in NSW, meaning drivers who are twice convicted of overcharging or refusing passengers will be banned from the industry, including using ride-sharing apps.
However, critics remain skeptical about the effectiveness of the rules, which require drivers to be convicted in two separate court rulings.
Victorian Minister for Public Transport and Active Transport Gabrielle Williams was contacted for comment. A Victorian government spokesperson responded: “Price gouging is not tolerated in Victoria and we are always looking for ways to provide better services for our customers.”
