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This Driver offboarding fact sheet is for authorised service providers - booking and taxi service providers - and aims to help them identify good practice when offboarding a driver.
A driver may be offboarded by a service provider for a number of reasons including, but not limited to, disciplinary action, the driver leaving the point to point transport industry or the driver no longer being eligible to provide a passenger service under point to point transport law (the law).
Authorised service providers should ensure the reasons for offboarding a driver are valid and consistent with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and the processes taken are compliant with the Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code. (The ‘Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code’ has not been published and implemented by the Australian government as at October 2024.)
The steps in this fact sheet apply when a service provider decides that a driver will no longer be permitted to provide passenger services under their authorisation, and the driver needs to be offboarded from their platform.
This fact sheet includes offboarding steps specifically related to the law. Service providers should check that each step has been integrated into their Safety Management System.
In the table, the symbol:
| ● | indicates that this step is applicable to the type of driver specified |
| ○ | indicates that this step is not applicable to the type of driver specified |
| Step | Taxi Driver | Hire vehicle (including rideshare) drivers |
|---|---|---|
|
Formally advise the driver (by written letter or email) of the date from when they will no longer be permitted to provide passenger services under their authorisation. The advice to
|
● | ● |
| Remove the driver’s details from the Point to Point Transport Commissioner's Driver Vehicle Dashboard and/or your own equivalent system. | ● | ● |
| Cancel the driver’s access to your dispatch and booking systems from the date the driver is to stop providing passenger services and remove them from your platform. | ● | ● |
| If the driver is also the owner of the vehicle which they use to provide passenger services, you must determine whether the vehicle also needs to be offboarded and, if so, ensure the driver removes all lights, signs and markings from that vehicle and any related dispatch equipment. | ● | ● |
|
Formally advise all relevant parties that the driver is being offboarded. These parties include:
|
● | ○ |
| Ensure that the driver’s Driver ID has been returned. | ● | ○ |
| If necessary, ensure that your EFTPOS machine (which the driver used to facilitate passenger payments) has been returned. | ● | ○ |
| Check that the driver has returned or removed their retroreflective sign from the vehicle providing passenger services. | ○ | ● |
Why is it important that a service provider completes, at a minimum, all the steps included in this Driver offboarding fact sheet?
Service providers must adopt good practices when offboarding drivers who no longer have permission to provide passenger services under their authorisation because:
- this is what the law requires of them. Under the law, a service provider must, so far as reasonably practicable, ensure that the driver complies with all safety standards including that they stop providing passenger services for them when the driver is no longer authorised by them to do so.
- there may be serious consequences, under the law, for a service provider if one of their former drivers continues to provide passenger services which are facilitated by using the service provider’s equipment, Driver ID, retroreflective sign or any other services. To reduce this risk, service providers must properly offboard drivers who no longer have permission to provide passenger services under their authorisation.
Further education
Related resources are available from the Learning Centre and the following links:
- The Point to Point Transport Act and Regulation
- Safety Management System webpage
- The Driver Vehicle Dashboard and the Traffic Light System fact sheet
- Disqualifying offences (drivers) webpage.
If you have any questions or need further information, please visit the Point to Point Transport Commissioner’s website pointtopoint.nsw.gov.au or call the Industry Contact Centre on 131 727.
