All authorised service providers must comply with the safety duties and safety standards set out in the law. The Point to Point Transport Commissioner’s Authorised Officers, as a part of the Commissioner’s targeted compliance priority, regularly conduct safety audits and on-street compliance and investigations. If an Authorised Officer finds a vehicle or service provider is non-compliant, they will issue one of two types of notice:
1. If the authorised officer believes that there is, or may be, an immediate and serious risk to health or safety, they will issue a prohibition notice. A prohibition notice immediately prohibits or restricts the continuation of the service
2. If the authorised officer believes the risk is not high or immediate, they will issue an improvement notice. The service provider has a set period of time (which is specified in the improvement notice) to rectify the issue
In 2020/2021, over 135 improvement notices were issued by the Commission. The top three most common reasons for improvement notices, accounting for 55% of notices issued were; preventative vehicle maintenance, driver checks and security camera systems in vehicles providing rank and hail passenger services.
Many of the improvement notices issued in respect of vehicle maintenance and driver checks were due to the service provider not keeping detailed records on how the required safety standards described in their Safety Management System were being met or not identifying sufficient ways to eliminate or minimise risk including in their register of risks.
Here is some guidance to help avoid being issued with an improvement notice:
Vehicle maintenance: The owner of the vehicle must ensure their vehicle/s is fully serviced and that repairs have been carried out by a licensed mechanic. Records of annual safety checks, servicing and repairs must be kept.
Service providers must also have a system in place to check that vehicles conducting services under their authorisation are complying with these safety standards.
More details on vehicle maintenance and who is responsible for this safety standard can be found here.
Driver checks: The criminal and driving histories of all new drivers must be checked to ensure they do not have any disqualifying offences prior to the driver being on-boarded. This can be achieved through a National Police Check or similar check.
A person cannot drive a vehicle if they:
- have been found guilty of a disqualifying offence ; or
- are not eligible
- the person does not meet the medical standards for commercial vehicle drivers set out in the publication Assessing Fitness to Drive (as amended from time to time).
Service providers must also conduct additional ongoing driver checks to make sure drivers do not incur disqualifying offences. The Driver Vehicle Dashboard (DVD) can be used to assist service providers to conduct such ongoing checks for offences committed in NSW. Additional checks for offences in any other state or territory in Australia, or in another country, may also be required if a driver has lived in those areas.
Service providers are audited to ensure they are regularly checking drivers so that they continue to meet the standards and have no disqualifying offences.
You can find out more on driver obligations on our website.
Specified security camera systems:
After a significant notice period, from 1 February 2021, all taxis that provide rank and hail passenger services must be fitted with an approved security camera system that meets specifications published by Transport for NSW and is in working order. This means that taxis that were previously fitted with a camera system under the Passenger Transport Regulation 2007 may not comply with the current specifications and must be replaced or made compliant.
Service providers will need to be able to show in an audit, or on request, that the vehicle’s security camera system meets the current specifications. They should be able to demonstrate that the supplier has provided detailed confirmation of how their camera security system is compliant with these specifications.
Our security cameras fact sheet and approved security camera systems checklist have more detailed information.
The Commissioner’s website provides monthly industry statistics updates on compliance activities as a part of his commitment to effective and consistent regulation.
If you require further information please contact our Industry Contact Centre on 131 727.