On Monday 31 January, the Point to Point Transport Commissioner’s Inspectors alongside Kings Cross Police Area Command carried out a joint compliance operation at the Domain in Sydney’s CBD. The joint operation targeted taxis and hire vehicles (including rideshare) to check vehicle safety and driver compliance.
Overall, the joint operation found most vehicles and drivers were providing safe passenger services. A total of 45 inspections were conducted resulting in three penalty notices, four prohibition notices along with one driver not being able to demonstrate he had been onboarded by the taxi service provider. This matter is under investigation.
Taxi drivers not displaying a driver ID and hire vehicle drivers (including rideshare) not displaying a retroreflective sign at the rear of their vehicle continue to be a consistent with penalty notice issued during compliance operations.
Vehicles were also inspected to ensure vehicles were being regularly and appropriately maintained. Four prohibition notices were handed out to taxi vehicles with insufficient tyre tread. Driving with bald tyres is not only dangerous for the driver and passenger but is also a risk for other road users as well. See our safety alert on bald tyres for further information.
A penalty notice was issued by NSW Police to a hire vehicle that stopped in a taxi zone and three improvement notices were issued to taxi vehicles found to have a security camera system that was not in good working order.
All taxi vehicles providing rank and hail passenger services must be fitted with an approved security camera system. See our Security Camera System checklist for a full list of security camera required specifications.
Targeted compliance continues to be a strategic priority for the Commissioner, joint operations with NSW Police are one of the numerous ways our Compliance team focus on identified risk and will continue to occur throughout NSW.
For more information including driver safety obligations, and educational tools and resources for service providers, see the Commissioner’s website.