The Victorian government has launched a crackdown on driver behaviour in the state’s taxi and ride-share sector, which the premier previously described as “absolutely vile”.
Minister for Public and Active Transport Gabrielle Williams announced on Friday that the government will institute a suite of measures that focus on reducing bad behaviour in the industry.
Among the changes are reforms that “ban dodgy taxi and ride-share drivers from operating”, while other measures include the ability to more easily report driver misconduct, the mandating of increased reporting of incidents by taxi companies, and the introduction of harsher penalties for non-compliance.
Initially, the reforms will involve the installation of mandatory QR codes in taxis and ride-share vehicles, while later in the year amended legislation will see the introduction of a “two strikes and you’re out rule” similar to one used in New South Wales.
The “two strikes” policy will give the state regulator greater power to cancel or suspend the accreditation of drivers who have two fare-related convictions against them.
The reforms will also increase the use of audio and video recordings within vehicles. New rules around camera usage will give carers of disabled passengers the option of accessing in-vehicle camera vision, while other reforms will require taxis to record both audio and video footage.
“These reforms will deliver significant improvements for the taxi and ride-share industry by strengthening compliance and enforcement, while giving passengers more ways to report illegal behaviour,” Ms Williams said.
“While most drivers are doing the right thing, these changes are about making trips are safer and more reliable for Victorians.”
The reforms are a direct response to a series of shocking incidents across the state’s taxi and ride-share sector, including the case of predatory Indian 13cabs driver Jarnail Singh, who pleaded guilty last December to 499 charges, including fraud, overcharging, and assaulting disabled passengers.
Singh was also convicted of transporting four passengers in wheelchairs instead of the legal limit of two, drink driving, and failing to secure the wheelchairs, with sentencing magistrate Kieran Gilligan saying that the law should be changed to allow taxi drivers to be jailed more easily.
CCTV footage also showed Singh ripping off his disabled passengers, striking them and berating them, with Victoria Police admitting that Singh’s crimes only came to light after he was caught drink-driving on the job.
Singh also regularly defrauded the taxpayer-subsidised taxi travel accounts of his disabled passengers, with Singh just one case in what are now near-epidemic levels of exploitation and fraud within the sector exposed by The Age earlier this year.
Yet these are not the only problems within the industry. The entire taxi and ride-share sector is now experiencing a wave of cases of sexual harassment and assault.
Last December another Indian taxi driver was sentenced to 10 months jail for sexually assaulted a barely conscious female before stealing her engagement ring.
Magistrate Kay Robertson said at the time, the offender had “betrayed the trust bestowed on him as a taxi driver”, adding that she wanted “to send a message to taxi drivers, and ride-share drivers, that there will be punishment if they breach that trust … particularly when that passenger is vulnerable”.
That follows a driver for the rideshare company DiDi being sentenced the previous year to seven years in prison for raping a woman he had picked up outside a Fitzroy nightclub.
The presiding County Court judge, Liz Gaynor, noted that this and similar incidents were but one part of a more “troubling rise in sexual assaults by ride-share and taxi drivers”.
“Sexual offending against substance-affected young women by taxi or Uber drivers has become all too prevalent”, Judge Gaynor said at the time.
Header image: Left, right, Jarnail Singh caught on CCTV (60 Minutes).
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