DRIVE A2B July 2018
*** SCROLL DOWN TO SELECT ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINE EDITIONS *** Australia's only Magazine for the Commercial Passenger Transport Industry. News and views for Drivers, Owners and Operators of Taxi, Hire Car, Limousine, Ride Share, Booked Hire Vehicles, Rank and Hail Cars.
*** SCROLL DOWN TO SELECT ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINE EDITIONS ***
Australia's only Magazine for the Commercial Passenger Transport Industry.
News and views for Drivers, Owners and Operators of Taxi, Hire Car, Limousine, Ride Share, Booked Hire Vehicles, Rank and Hail Cars.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Maximum fares<br />
UNCHANGED<br />
FARE REVIEW<br />
Recently the Essential Services Commission (ESC) called for submissions from<br />
stakeholders regarding their proposed approach to analysing maximum fares and also<br />
proposals from stakeholders on the maximum fare schedule should be determined.<br />
The draft decision of the ESC is to keep the maximum fare unchanged. The ESC has<br />
published a draft report, an excerpt is printed here. You can read the full report at /www.<br />
esc.vic.gov.au.<br />
Over the last two years the commercial passenger vehicle (CPV) industry has experienced<br />
enormous change. This is likely to continue over the next few years.<br />
The government has made wide reaching reforms to the industry. In particular, the<br />
reduction of the cost of taxi licences and changes to allow the entry of rideshare services<br />
have had a significant impact. There are still more reforms to come.<br />
Fares for all booked services<br />
will be deregulated, the licensing<br />
system has been replaced with<br />
a registration system, and the<br />
regulations that CPV service<br />
providers must comply have<br />
been reviewed.<br />
In addition to these reforms,<br />
we have seen the intensity of<br />
competition in the CPV industry<br />
increase. In Melbourne, there are<br />
currently three major rideshare<br />
booking services (Ola, Taxify,<br />
and Uber) competing on price,<br />
new taxi booking services<br />
such as Oiii and Slyyk continue<br />
to emerge and the number<br />
of licensed taxis has almost<br />
doubled since September 2017.<br />
From a consumer perspective,<br />
this competition provides a<br />
greater variety of services to<br />
choose from and less time<br />
spent waiting for CPVs. But<br />
overall, what we are seeing is<br />
that passengers are using taxis<br />
less. This means that there are<br />
fewer taxi fares but many more<br />
taxis and other CPVs on the<br />
road.<br />
For the traditional taxi industry,<br />
particularly long-time operators,<br />
this is a time of uncertainty.<br />
As mentioned above, over the<br />
coming year, further reforms will<br />
come into effect.<br />
The Essential Services<br />
Commission (ESC) role is to set<br />
maximum fares for unbooked<br />
CPVs. Amongst all of these<br />
shifting conditions, they are now<br />
required to set (and periodically<br />
review) unbooked CPV fares<br />
whereas in the past we set<br />
maximum fares for booked and<br />
unbooked taxis.<br />
Views are mixed about what<br />
should happen to fares.<br />
Some submissions received<br />
recently by the ESC suggested<br />
fares should increase, some<br />
suggested that fares should<br />
decrease, while others stated<br />
that a change to fares would<br />
be unhelpful given all of the<br />
changes the industry is going<br />
through.<br />
Draft decision<br />
The ESC is concerned that<br />
changing maximum fares for<br />
unbooked CPVs now might have<br />
unpredictable consequences.<br />
18 <strong>DRIVE</strong> <strong>A2B</strong> magazine · <strong>July</strong> <strong>2018</strong>