The Point to Point Transport Commissioner regularly undertakes safety audits of rideshare, taxi and hire vehicle providers.
Safety audits include checks on drivers, oversight of vehicle maintenance, notification of incidents and consistent follow up on the safety reports service providers receive from passengers. When necessary, the Commissioner takes enforcement action including the issuing of improvement and prohibition notices, investigations and prosecutions.
Following a safety audit by the Commissioner, rideshare provider Didi has been fined more than $97,000.
The Commissioner prosecuted DiDi for two safety offences of failing to ensure one of its drivers was eligible to drive. The Magistrate convicted DiDi and imposed fines totalling $15,400.
This outcome clearly highlighting the importance that all service providers must ensure they conduct required driver checks and have clear systems in place to ensure this is done regularly and accurately.
The Commissioner also issued penalty notices for various incidences of failing to report notifiable occurrences as required by point to point transport law totalling more than $82,000.
All service providers must ensure that all drivers clear a series of background checks before they can provide passenger services and that all vehicles are appropriately registered and safe to be driven on the road.
The Commissioner, as a result of the audit, directed DiDi to improve its systems and processes, resulting in improved safety outcomes for passengers and its drivers.
Some areas where DiDi were directed to make improvements as a result of the safety audit include:
Driver management - The Commissioner’s Audit team found that DiDi allowed an ineligible driver to conduct passenger services. The ineligible driver was not identified by DiDi due to its process and systems having gaps that led to required checks not being properly conducted on the Commissioner’s Driver Vehicle Dashboard (DVD).
The Commissioner directed DiDi to improve its systems and processes, including how it conducts its driver onboarding and ongoing driver checks. DiDi has since complied with the directions given by the Commissioner.
Incident management – DiDi's application of its systems used to manage passenger complaints and incidents were not effective enough and required improvement, resulting in DiDi not reporting a number of notifiable occurrences to the Commissioner as soon as practicable.
Didi has since made improvements to its systems, including mandated quality assurance checks and improved staff training.
Vehicle maintenance - DiDi was directed to improve its systems and process for checking the maintenance of vehicles taking bookings under its authorisation. These improvements included a better system to check vehicles and more comprehensive training for its staff undertaking vehicle maintenance checks.
DiDi was also directed to bring in an external auditor to measure the effectiveness of updated controls and systems. This work has been undertaken by DiDi.
The Commissioner notes DiDi’s cooperation in responding to his directions following the audit, and its commitment to improving its safety systems and processes.
Safety is the Commissioner’s priority, which is why his Compliance team routinely audits rideshare, taxi and other point to point transport service providers to ensure compliance with the point to point transport law and the safety of passenger services. The Commissioner will continue to hold all service providers to account for their safety obligations.
For more information on the audit process please view our video and fact sheet.
Please read our recent media release on the Commissioner’s safety audit of DiDi.
