Safety Duties and Standards

The Point to Point Transport (Taxi and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016 (the Act) and The Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Regulation 2017 (the Regulation) set out the safety duties and safety standards that apply to providers of passenger services, booking services, taxi services, officers (people who have a position of responsibility), holders of taxi licences, owners of taxis and hire vehicles and drivers of those vehicles.

A person commits an offence if the person has a safety duty or is required to comply with a safety standard and the person fails to comply with that duty or safety standard.

What are safety duties?

Primary duty of service providers

Providers of passenger services and booking services have a primary duty of care (primary responsibility) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of drivers and other persons while they are engaged (carrying out functions) in providing the service. This includes a duty of care for the taxi or hire vehicle driver, the person taking bookings from passengers or the person rostering vehicles and drivers.

Service providers also have a primary duty of care to passengers or other persons in connection with the provision of the service. This includes the passenger, a person assisting the passenger into or out of the vehicle or a person who comes into contact with the driver whilst the vehicle is being used to provide a passenger service.

Taxi service and booking service providers must:

  1. Eliminate risks to safety, so far as is reasonably practicable
  2. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to safety, minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

Duty of officers

People who hold positions of responsibility in a business with a safety duty (duty holders) are known as officers. Officers of providers of passenger services and booking services must exercise due diligence to ensure that the provider of the service complies with their safety duties or obligations.

You will be an officer of a service provider if you:

  • are a director or secretary of a company that is a service provider; or
  • make, or participate in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part, of the passenger service or booking service provided; or
  • are otherwise an officer of a company that is a service provider under section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).

You must exercise due diligence which includes taking reasonable steps to:

a)  acquire (obtain) and keep up-to-date knowledge of safety matters relating to passenger services;

b)  gain an understanding of the nature of the operations of the duty holder (the provider of the passenger service or booking service) and of the hazards and risks associated with the operation of the passenger service;

c)  ensure that the duty holder has available for use and uses, appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety from the operation of the passenger service;

d)  ensure that the duty holder has appropriate processes for receiving and considering information regarding incidents, hazards and risks and responding in a timely way to that information;

e)  ensure that the duty holder has and implements processes for complying with any safety duty of the duty holder;

f)  verify the provision and use of the resources or processes outlined in points (c) to (e).

Duty of drivers

Drivers of taxis or hire vehicles also have safety duties. They must:

a)  take reasonable care for their own health or safety;

b)  take reasonable care that their own acts or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of others;

c)  comply with any reasonable instruction that is given by the provider of the passenger service to the driver, so far as the driver is reasonably able to comply; and

d)  co-operate with any reasonable policy or procedure of the provider of the passenger service relating to health or safety in connection with the service.

What are safety standards?

Safety standards are the specific safety obligations set out in the point to point transport law that must be followed to ensure services are safe.

All industry participants have a part to play in safety and must adhere to the applicable safety standards.

There are currently five categories of safety standards:

  • Safety Management System
  • Vehicle standards
  • Insurance
  • Provision of information
  • Drivers

Depending on your role in the point to point transport industry you may have more than one obligation in relation to a specific safety duty or standard, or more than one person may have the same obligation. This could occur, for example, if you are the provider of a passenger service and also the driver of that service.

It is important to note that taxi service providers have specific obligations due to the nature of providing rank and hail passenger services.

The Point to Point Transport Commissioner may audit service providers to verify that safety standards are complied with.