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It is illegal for any driver who is providing passenger services in a taxi, rideshare or hire vehicle to refuse to transport a passenger with an assistance animal (for example, a guide dog) or an assistance animal in training. Drivers caught refusing an assistance animal or cancelling a trip with an assistance animal face a $1000 fine.
An important step in ensuring people travelling with assistance animals can do so confidently and safely is to ensure they are able to easily report a refusal or cancellation and know it will be investigated and actioned by the service provider.
The Point to Point Transport Commissioner requires all service providers to report all complaints regarding an assistance animal refusal or a cancellation of a journey involving an assistance animal to the Commission via the Industry Portal as soon as possible following receiving a complaint. Service providers must also report the actions they took in response to the report and how the complaint was resolved.
Complaints about refusal may be received in two ways:
A. Directly to the service provider.
B. To the Commissioner’s Contact Centre.
A. Handling complaints reported directly to you, the service provider
Where the complainant comes directly to you, the service provider, you must collect all relevant information and then begin investigating the matter as soon as possible. You will also need to complete the ‘assistance animal complaint reporting form’ in the Industry Portal. You must also contact the complainant as a part of this process.
B. Handling complaints received via the Commissioner’s Contact Centre
When someone makes a complaint about one of your drivers, the Commission will send you an email with details of the complaint. Service providers will then need to complete the steps outlined in the step-by-step guide below. You will need to complete the ‘assistance animal complaint reporting form’ in the Industry Portal. You must also contact the complainant as a part of this process.
For help in completing the ‘assistance animal complaint reporting form’, refer to the step-by-step guide which is below.
1. Log in to the Industry Portal.
2. Navigate to the ‘Activities’ tab (left side of screen) and then click on the ‘Assistance Animals’ tab (right side of screen).
3. The ‘Assistance Animals complaint’ reporting form will be generated. You should start the form as soon as you receive a report of an assistance animal refusal/cancellation, however, you can save the form, leave it and finalise the information once you have completed your investigations. All fields marked with a red asterix (*) are mandatory fields.
Important: How to save information entered into a form that is not yet ready to submit:
a. make sure that at least one of the fields marked with a red asterix (*) is blank
b. click ‘Save’
c. click ‘OK’
The form will close and you will be able to open it when you are ready to add more information.
Note: The question ‘Was this a rank and hail hiring?’ will only be displayed if you are a Taxi Service Provider.
Note: You can select one or a number of options to answer the question which asks how the complaint was resolved.
Note: Uploading documents is possible, but not required.
4. Once you click ‘Save’, a confirmation message will be displayed. If you are sure that you are ready to submit the form, click ‘OK’. Clicking ‘Cancel’ will return you to the form and allow you to make changes to it. Complete all mandatory fields, those marked with a red asterix (*) to submit. Click ‘Save’.
5. Once you have successfully submitted the form, a summary of the details entered will appear in the ‘Customer Complaints’ tab of the ‘Activities’ section.
If you wanted to make any changes to the submitted form, please contact the Industry Contact Centre on 131 727 between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
6. When in the ‘Customer Complaints’ tab, you can use the ‘Show closed Cases’ toggle button to switch between:
- ‘Closed’ cases (the cases which have been investigated, resolved and for which you have fully completed and submitted the form)
- cases that are ‘In Progress’ (the cases which are under investigation or are being resolved - the form is partly complete and has not been submitted).
Note: You will receive a reminder email if a form remains incomplete after 14 days. If you do not respond to this email by finalising the matter and submitting the completed form, a second reminder email will be sent 14 days after the first.
After Reporting
The Commission will review your responses to all parts of the form and determine if further investigation or action is needed. If the Commission requires further information or detail from you, the case will appear as shown below with the status ‘Reopened’.
Reminder
Failure to report the results of your investigation and/or resolution of an assistance animal (including guide dog) refusal/cancellation may result in follow-up action by the Commissioner.
Further Information
Related resources are available from the Learning centre and the following links:
• Assistance animals toolkit
• Point to Point Transport Act and Regulation
If you have any questions or need further information, please visit the website pointtopoint.nsw.gov.au or call the Industry Contact Centre on 131 727.
