Glossary of terms

An affiliated taxi service provider is a taxi service provider who obtains services such as security monitoring, branding (logo/livery), fares and the coordination of Safety Management Systems from a taxi service provider. Affiliated providers do not have to be authorised by the Point to Point Transport Commissioner. 

Providers are required by Regulation to report notifiable occurrences to the Commissioner as soon as practicable after the provider becomes aware of the accident or incident concerned.  This means notifiable occurrences must be reported as soon as is able to be done, after the provider becomes aware of the accident or incident, taking into account and weighing up all relevant matters.

Authorisation is how the Point to Point Transport Commissioner approves an entity to provide booking services or taxi services in NSW.

Affiliated providers and drivers do not have to be authorised by the Point to Point Transport Commissioner.

The authorised fare is the fare set by an authorised taxi service provider for unbooked (rank/hail) services. A taxi’s fare calculation device (meter) must be calibrated to the authorised fare.

A body corporate is a legal entity that is incorporated under a law of NSW or any other jurisdiction (including the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth, the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 and the Co-operatives National Law (NSW). 

A booking service provider takes bookings for taxis or hire vehicles to provide passenger services and communicates bookings to drivers or to providers of passenger services.

Businesses that provide phone and internet booking services to hire vehicles providing passenger services or taxi and hire vehicle drivers are referred to as booking service providers. 

In addition, taxi and hire vehicle drivers who take bookings directly from customers are considered to be booking service providers. 

Booking service providers must be authorised by the Point to Point Transport Commissioner.

A close associate is someone who holds a financial interest, or is entitled to exercise power in the business, and who can act on behalf of an authorised service provider. They could also be employed, contracted to, or otherwise hold a position in the business.  

The Point to Point Transport Commissioner may refuse to grant an authorisation on the grounds that a close associate of the applicant has previously had an authorisation cancelled, whether for the operation of the same or a different service. Further, the Commissioner must not grant an application for authorisation if a close associate has been convicted of a disqualifying offence.

A disqualifying offence is an offence which prohibits a person from being authorised as a taxi service provider or a booking service provider, or prevents individuals from being nominated as directors or managers of applicants for authorisation. There are also disqualifying offences for drivers, including criminal offences, serious driving offences and safety offences. If a driver has been found guilty of a disqualifying offence, they are not permitted to drive a taxi or hire vehicle.

Due diligence refers to the ‘reasonable steps’ that an officer of a service provider must take to ensure that they comply with the safety obligations outlined in the Act. These reasonable steps include, but are not limited to:

•    Ensuring the business has (and uses) appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise safety risks from the operation of the passenger service, such as a Safety Management System.

•    Having up-to-date knowledge of safety matters relating to passenger services. For example, understanding the Act and Regulation, and ensuring management meetings cover safety issues.

•    Understanding the operations of the booking service or passenger service, including understanding common risks and hazards such as exposure to violence or driver fatigue.

•    Ensuring the business has appropriate processes to receive information about incidents, hazards and risks, and respond in a timely manner, such as incident reporting mechanisms and providing drivers and others with ways to raise safety issues.

•    Ensuring the business has, and implements, processes to comply with any duty or obligation, such as reporting notifiable occurrences, consulting with drivers, affiliated providers, vehicle owners and others on safety issues, ensuring compliance with notices from the Point to Point Transport Commissioner, providing training and instruction in safe procedures for equipment and systems testing policies, and testing procedures and practices to verify compliance with obligations.

Duty of care is an obligation for providers of passenger services and booking service providers to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of drivers, passengers and other people in connection with the provision of their services. 

Providers of passenger services and booking service providers must take appropriate steps to:
a.    eliminate risks to safety, so far as reasonably practicable 
b.    minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable, if it is not reasonable to eliminate risks to safety. 

Drivers must also ensure that they are taking reasonable care for themselves and others, and that they comply with any reasonable policies or instructions of booking service providers or providers of passenger services.

A facilitator is someone who provides services for taxis. Facilitating a taxi service may involve the provision of any of the following services under a common brand and that are marked or painted in a uniform way: 

•    co-ordination of the provision of taxi services 

•    provision, co-ordination or monitoring of security facilities for taxis 

•    setting of fares that may be charged for taxi services 

•    co-ordination or provision of Safety Management Systems for taxi services.

A fare is any kind of payment for the provision of a passenger service. The payment can be to the driver, a booking service provider or a provider of a passenger service. It can also be any ‘in kind’ contribution in recognition of the service delivered. 

See also Authorised Fare

A hire vehicle is any motor vehicle (with 12 seats or less, including the driver) used to provide a passenger service that is not a taxi. Hire vehicles may include motorcycles if they meet the specifications defined under the Regulation.

An individual is a natural person.

An ineligible driver is a person who is prohibited from driving a taxi or hire vehicle because they fail to meet certain standards relating to their driver licence, including medical standards. This includes any person who was previously refused an application for a driver authority or cancelled on the grounds that they were not a fit and proper person, under either the 1990 or 2014 Passenger Transport Act.

A nominated manager is a director or manager in a business who is directly involved in the day-to-day management of a corporation that is an authorised service provider. Authorised service providers, who are not individuals or partnerships, must nominate a responsible manager or director who will be the Commissioner’s main contact in relation to the service provider’s authorisation. A nominated manager may also be an officer. 

At least one of the nominated managers or directors must be a resident of NSW.

Notifiable occurrences refer to an accident or incident that booking service providers and taxi service providers (other than affiliated providers) must report to the Point to Point Transport Commissioner.  Incidents that need to be reported include (but are not limited to): 

a)    an accident or incident involving a passenger vehicle which results in a person being treated by ambulance officers or transported by ambulance, or admitted to hospital as a result of the injury
 
b)    a collision involving a passenger vehicle that results in a collision or impact with another vehicle, which results in the vehicle being unable to continue its journey 

c)    a vehicle fault, that may include a failure of any brake, steering or suspension system, or wheels or tyres, which results in the vehicle not being able to commence or complete its journey 

d)    any incident involving a driver, passenger or intended passenger of a passenger vehicle that results in a complaint being made to police involving an allegation of sexual assault, indecent exposure, physical assault, threatening behaviour (e.g. physical threat or intimidation against or by the driver) 

e)    where a driver, in the course of providing a passenger service, is charged with a major traffic offence – such as predatory driving, police chase high-range speeding, positive drug test.

Officers are people who have positions of responsibility in a business. These individual(s) must exercise their due diligence to ensure that a service provider complies with its duty of care and safety obligations. They are involved in making decisions affecting all or a substantial part of the services (e.g. booking services, taxi services or related security services) provided by the service provider. 

A nominated manager is likely to be an officer; however, other people inside the business are also likely to be officers. This would include directors and other senior staff who make decisions affecting the services provided..

Two or more persons who intend to carry on a booking or taxi service or hold a taxi licence jointly under a partnership or other agreement. Members of a partnership are jointly and severally responsible for complying with the requirements of the Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016 and Regulation.  

Passenger service means the transport of passengers by a motor vehicle (other than a bus) within, or partly within, NSW for a fare. Taxi services and services provided by hire vehicles are passenger services. The following services are not passenger services:
 
•    a community transport service provided under a community transport agreement entered into with Transport for NSW

•    a service conducted according to regular routes and timetables, or according to regular routes at regular intervals

•    a service conducted according to one or more regular routes, in which each passenger is transported for a distance of not less than 40 kilometres

•    a service which is generally provided off-road (i.e. not on a road or a road related area)

•    services provided under the Assisted School Travel Program of the Department of Education

•    services for patients in an ambulance or other transport for patients that is facilitated by a hospital, or on behalf of HealthShare NSW

•    services provided for persons in custody by or on behalf of Corrective Services NSW

•    car pooling, i.e. transport services provided to passengers going to the same or similar destination as the driver that are not monetarily reimbursed or provided through a booking service or passenger service

•    services provided in a vehicle that can seat 12 or more people (including the driver).

Other kinds of services which are not generally available to the public, or which are incidental to another kind of business, are also unlikely to be passenger services, such as:

•    a nursing home using a vehicle it owns to take residents to a doctor’s appointment

•    a club using its vehicle to provide a courtesy service to its members

•    a sea kayak tour company or surf school using its vehicle to provide transport to its clients from a pick up point (e.g. their accommodation) to the beach.

The Passenger Service Levy applies to passenger service transactions carried out by taxi and booking service providers. 

Taxi service providers and booking service providers need to register as a taxpayer through the Industry Portal on the Point to Point Transport Commissioner’s website to submit levy returns. Payment of the levy is a condition of authorisation.

For taxi service providers, it means the provision of a taxi service where a customer hails down a taxi in the street or takes a taxi from a taxi rank.

For booking service providers, it means the provision of a passenger service as the result of taking a booking.

A provider of a passenger service is a business which provides a passenger service, charges specifically for the passenger service, and is attempting to generate revenue specifically from the transport of passengers.

The Act makes it clear that taxi service providers – affiliated providers and authorised taxi service providers (including facilitators) - are providers of passenger services.  

Who is the provider of a passenger service provided in hire vehicles will depend on the business model in each case. If the booking service is being provided in an organised regular and ongoing way, with the intent of generating revenue from taking bookings then they will be the provider of the passenger service and need to be authorised.

Whether a driver of a hire vehicle is a provider of a passenger service is determined on a case by case basis and is decided based on factors such as:

•    how the driver receives payment (and from whom) and 

•    how much control the driver has over the provision of the service (including, but not limited to when the vehicle is available to them to provide services).

A business which contracts someone else to provide transport for their clients is not providing a passenger service. The person they contract will be considered a provider of a passenger service. Other kinds of business may not be providers of passenger services are listed under passenger services.

Only taxis can pick up customers from ranks or be hailed down in the street. Hire vehicles cannot offer these services.

‘Reasonably practicable’ means ‘what is reasonably able to be done’. Service providers must do what is ‘reasonably practicable’ to ensure their services are safe. It means taking reasonable steps to identify and minimise risks or hazards associated with their services.
 
Under the Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016 various people have to do what is ‘reasonably practicable’ in ensuring services are safe. This diagram will help understand specified obligations and responsibilities (so far as reasonably practicable for safety standards).

The following should be taken into account when considering whether it would be reasonably practicable to respond to a particular risk or hazard:

•    How likely is the risk or hazard?

•    How severe are the consequences of the risk?

•    What the person knows (or ought to reasonably know) about the risk and ways of eliminating the risk

•    What is available and suitable to deal with the risk?

•    The cost of the available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk, and whether this cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

A responsible person is an individual or a company who has an obligation to comply so far as is reasonably practicable with a particular safety standard that is specified for them in the Regulation. Sometimes more than one person can have obligations in relation to the same safety standard.

This diagram makes clear which standards are specified for particular people, and also who is a responsible person for the safety standards.

A risk-based approach refers to the assessment of the severity of a safety issue (the risk) and the appropriate action (or measure) that could prevent the issue happening in future. 

The Point to Point Transport Commissioner uses a risk-based approach when deciding how to enforce safety standards.

The Safety Management System details how the provider of a passenger service identifies, records and manages any risks associated with a business’s services, and how the required safety standards are met.

Officers within a service provider must take part in developing the Safety Management System. 

A Safety Management System involves identifying and keeping records of: 

•    reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to risks to health and safety to drivers, passengers, and other people in connection with the provision of the service
 
•    the control measures taken to eliminate or minimise the risks 

•    what is done to maintain those control measures. 

When a service provider (and officers within those service providers) develop and maintain a Safety Management System they must consult with other people, such as drivers, vehicle owners, affiliated providers and licence holders, as appropriate, and keep records of those consultations. Other records that need to be kept for the Safety Management System to be compliant with the law include details of persons associated with the service provider comply with safety standards, and details of any notifiable occurrences.

The Regulation outlines safety standards that must be met by different industry participants. More than one person can have obligations in relation to the same safety standard. 

If a safety standard is specified for a person, the person must not contravene the safety standard. If a person is a responsible person for a particular safety standard they must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the safety standard is complied with.

Further information on safety standards specific to taxi service providers and booking service providers is on the website.

Service provider refers to the provider of a booking service or the provider of a passenger service.

A taxi is a motor vehicle that is licensed to provide taxi services. Only taxis can do rank and hail work. Taxi services may also be booked.

A taxi must be identifiable as a taxi through being painted or marked in a consistent way. A taxi that does rank and hail work must also have a roof light and sign displaying the word ‘taxi’, ‘cab’ or ‘cabs’.

A taxi licence holder is the person who provides a taxi service under the licence.

A taxi service is a passenger service that is provided in a taxi. This means that a passenger is transported in a taxi for a fare. The person who provides this service is a taxi service provider.

A provider of a taxi service can be an affiliated provider, a facilitator of a taxi service, or provide both the taxi service and the related services.

Facilitating a taxi service involves providing any of the following services under a common brand:

•    co-ordination of the provision of taxi services

•    provision, co-ordination or monitoring of security facilities for taxis

•    setting of fares for taxi services  

•    co-ordination or provision of safety management systems for taxi services

Taxi service providers, other than affiliated providers, must be authorised by the Point to Point Transport Commissioner.

Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016.

Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Regulation 2017.

The vehicle owner is the person in whose name the vehicle is registered.