Last week in the Downing Centre Local Court, taxi service provider, Cabcare Taxi Services Pty Ltd was fined $17,600 and convicted for safety offences relating to drivers who were ineligible to drive its taxis.
Cabcare was prosecuted by the Point to Point Transport Commissioner, and convicted and fined by the Court, for not conducting appropriate driver checks on four drivers and allowing them to unlawfully provide taxi services; two were ineligible to drive due to not having held an unrestricted Australian driver licence for a total of at least 12 months in the preceding 2 years, and another two drivers had disqualifying offences.
Cabcare was also ordered to pay legal costs totalling $2,500. Cabcare has confirmed that the drivers involved have since been offboarded by the company.
In giving reasons for the conviction and fine, the Court noted the importance of the safety-related responsibilities of taxi service providers. The outcome of this prosecution clearly highlights the importance of service providers having systems and processes in place to check driver eligibility.
The prosecution followed routine plain clothes operations in Sydney’s CBD, where the Commissioner’s on-street Inspectors found four drivers providing rank and hail passenger services under Cabcare’s authorisation had not undergone the appropriate driver checks and should not have been providing taxi services.
Service provider safety obligations
NSW has strong safety laws to ensure the safety of rideshare, taxi and hire vehicle passenger services, and every provider must comply with these safety standards.
All service providers must ensure their vehicles are appropriately registered and safe to be driven on the road, and drivers must clear a series of background checks before they can provide passenger services.
Taxi service providers must ensure also that their affiliated providers (operators) are appropriately onboarding drivers and conducting ongoing eligibility checks.
The Commissioner will continue to hold all service providers to account for their safety obligations, and his on-street Inspectors will continue to carry out highly visible and plain-clothes compliance operations across NSW.
This case follows other prosecutions by the Commissioner that have resulted in fines and convictions for allowing ineligible drivers to drive, including most recently rideshare provider DiDi.
For more information, please refer to our disqualifying offences and driver eligibility criteria fact sheets.