Page 30 - drive a2b october 2019

Industry

REFORMS

WESTERN It's been an extremely tough time for taxi
operators in Western Australia over the past
AUSTRALIA few years.
NEWS The history of the taxi industry in Western
Australia is very similar to other States
whereby decades of legislation lead to a highly
regulated industry and taxi plate licences
subsequently gaining recognised values being
traded for significant amounts around the
State.

It started....

Over the past decades the WA taxi industry
has been regulated by the Taxi Act 1994 for
Metropolitan and the Transport Co-ordination
Act 1966 for regional areas.
Mandurah/Murray was included in the
regional areas. The use of the two legislations
to manage taxis across the state was a
considerable administrative burden and led to
many procedural errors that saw regional taxi
plates and operators both trading and leasing
Country Taxi Plate Licences using the same
documents and processes as Metropolitan
Taxi Plate Licences.

1998....

In 1998 a discussion paper titled "Incorporation
of Country Taxis Under the Taxi Act 1994" by
Department of Planning and Infrastructure
examined the different legislations and how all
taxi plates could be better managed under the
one Act.

2002....
In 2002 regional operators requested
clarification in regards to the perpetuity
ownership of country taxi plates. This
was granted in writing by the then Minister
for Planning and Infrastructure Alannah

30 DRIVE A2B magazine · October 2019