Victoria’s taxi industry wants a crackdown on rogue drivers after police had to be called to force an entire rank of uncooperative cabbies to turn on their meters, as taxis across Australia continue to illegally overcharge.
The extent of illegal behaviour from taxi drivers was laid bare last Wednesday in Melbourne, when tens of thousands of people, including many families, moved through the city on their way home from several major events including a Matildas match.
Shortly after 10pm, police officers stationed inside Flinders Street station were approached by multiple people reporting that every taxi driver in the rank outside the transport hub – where more than 10 were queued – was refusing to turn on their meter and demanding inflated fares upfront.
Police officers then ordered each driver to switch on their meter, something required of them by law for so-called “rank or hail” unbooked trips.
Guardian Australia spoke to people at the rank who attempted to go to Armadale – less than 10km away – and were told it would be an $85 fare, with no option to go by the meter. An official from the Victorian Taxi Association (VTA) later told Guardian Australia such a trip should cost no more than $35 by the meter.
“Police were approached by members of the public complaining about taxi drivers refusing fares,” Victoria police said in a statement. “Officers spoke with parties involved and directed drivers to comply with legislation.”
Police decided not to charge any drivers.
The VTA commended police for responding to the situation, but said the fact it became a police matter illustrated how regulators were failing.
‘Open door to do what they like’
Rogue behaviour from taxis in Victoria and New South Wales has risen in prominence since the deregulation of the industry in each state in 2017 – a development spurred on by the rise of ridesharing.
The result has been a surge in drivers creating fake surcharges, adding costs for tolls above true charges, demanding upfront fares when hailed or at ranks and refusing to use meters or accept short trips.
The VTA’s director, Peter Valentine, said reports of drivers overcharging or refusing their meters was most common after major events, such as the Australian Open or Grand Prix, but it was still happening at quieter times.
“It might be a major event, it might be locals or tourists … but passengers are being taken for a ride, and that’s their impression of Victoria,” Valentine said. “Passengers could be elderly, disabled or your children, and they’re being cheated.
“You can’t be charging $200 to go from the Grand Prix at Albert Park to the city.”
Deregulation in Victoria ended the era of meter rates set by the essential services commission. It allowed drivers to negotiate fares for both unbooked and pre-booked trips.
In 2023, laws were updated to ban fare negotiation for unbooked trips, but Valentine said issues stemming from deregulation remained.
The post-deregulation era also saw the cost of becoming a taxi driver reduce from more than $23,000 for accreditation to just $56.
“All of a sudden you could get in on the smell of an oily rag, and so we had an influx into the industry,” said Valentine, who is also CEO of the Geelong Taxi Network and its roughly 200 cars.
“The ones who are out there who are not compliant with the few rules that still exist are the rats and mice, and they need to be eliminated. We don’t want them getting out of one car and into another, we want them banned permanently.”
Additionally, drivers no longer need to belong to an established taxi network to work. Misbehaving drivers who are kicked out of a company can work independently and taxi drivers can supplement their workdays with rideshare work even after they have reached fatigue-management shift limits.
While independent drivers do not receive radio work and company bookings, they and their cars also do not have to meet standards set by a network on the age of vehicles, cleanliness or uniforms.
“Melbourne is now full of independent operators and if you enter these cabs it looks like a botched service,” Valentine said. “They can wear thongs, there are no standards, it’s just drivers hungry for fares.”
‘Less than 10km surcharge’
Across Victoria and NSW, taxi industry groups have been critical of what they call a minority of bad-actor drivers who are disregarding meter rules, either because they do not think they’ll be caught or because fines pale in comparison to increased earnings from overcharging.
Valentine said the rise of ridesharing - and the knowledge that Uber customers who face inflated “surge pricing” during busy periods turn to taxis only at those times – had emboldened some drivers to claim their meters did not work, so they could demand higher fares and replicate the surge benefit for themselves.
“If your meter isn’t operating properly, it’s the responsibility of the driver not to drive. They can’t just demand an upfront fare.”
Valentine is scathing of the Victorian authorities and what he says is their failure to ensure compliance since deregulation. Victorian taxi drivers face a fine of almost $2,000 if it is proven they failed to use their meter. However, the state government did not provide information about how many infringements it had issued.
He compares the three officers tasked with policing the 110,000 taxi or rideshare drivers in the state with the new NSW authority – the point–to-point commission – which has increasingly bolstered its crackdown on dodgy drivers in the state.
Additionally, taxi drivers in NSW must belong to a network, and cannot drive independently as they can in Victoria.
However, NSW is also struggling with how to weed out repeat offenders.
Deregulation in the state undid a centralised database of wrongdoing, meaning a driver kicked out of one company could get a job at another without bosses knowing of issues. The barrier for accreditation also dropped from more than $27,000 a year to $160.
The NSW point-to-point-commission launched a crackdown on fare misbehaviour at the end of 2022, which included deploying plain–clothed officers to catch drivers in the act, leading to about 900 fines in two years.
It also launched a complaints hotline that has led to 2,500 refunds being issued after overcharging.
One complaint, reported by Guardian Australia, featured a customer getting a cab from a rank at an inner-Sydney suburb to the airport – a fare that normally costs $35- 40. They said the driver refused to turn on his meter, demanded an upfront fare of $117 and kicked them out of the cab when they refused.
Guardian Australia is also aware of complaints of drivers adding incorrect or non-existent charges such as “less than 10km surcharges” or inflated toll costs.
‘The next network has no clue what they’ve done’
Despite the crackdown in NSW, the illegal behaviour has persisted. More than 220 drivers ignored initial fines and reoffended within a year, data obtained by the Guardian under freedom of information laws revealed.
NSW increased the fine for overcharging to $1,000 in the middle of last year. In the first three months of the higher fine window, more than 350 on-the-spot fines were issued.
Last week, new “two strikes and you’re out” laws came into effect in NSW, meaning any driver guilty of overcharging or refusing a fare two times will be banned from the industry, which will extend to rideshare apps such as Uber and Didi.
However, the new laws require a taxi driver to be found guilty on two separate occasions, which requires a court conviction – raising questions about whether the two strikes policy will be effective.
The New South Wales Taxi Council’s CEO, Nick Abrahim, said deregulation lowered oversight of rules and barriers to entry.
While the Minns government has vowed to add a driver’s history of fare infringement and court attendances to an industry dashboard, Abrahim has called for the reinstatement of a centralised register of accredited taxi drivers – which existed before deregulation – that includes more information such as all complaints and disciplinary action against a driver.
“Not all complaints about behaviour end up with an infringement or court attendance,” Abrahim said. “We want to capture repeat offending so they can’t just walk up the road and the next network has no clue what they’ve done.”
Victoria’s transport minister, Danny Pearson, did not respond to questions about the number of compliance officers or fines issued. A Victorian government spokesperson said on his behalf: “We have made it clear to the commercial passenger vehicle industry that unbooked services must use the meter – price gouging has no place here, with penalties for anyone who does the wrong thing.”
Do you know more? Contact elias.visontay@theguardian.com
