DRIVE A2B June 2018

Interstate
News
QUEENSLAND
The Taxi Council of Queensland
(TCQ) has called for State
Government to make urgent
changes to the Compulsory Third
Party (CTP) insurance scheme,
before the livelihoods of more
Queensland taxi operators are
put in jeopardy by the huge
discrepancy in CTP premiums for
taxis and booked hire vehicles.
Queensland taxi operators
currently pay Class 3 premiums at
$4,460.60 pa compared to booked
hire vehicles paying Class 26
premiums at $584.10 pa, despite
operating with similar risk profiles.
TCQ CEO Blair Davies says,
“Under the current Queensland
CTP scheme, taxis are paying a
far higher CTP premium than all
other operators in the personalised
transport industry. We’re operating
with almost identical risks, so
there should be no reason why our
drivers and operators should be
forking out more,” said Mr Davies.
“We have Mums and Dads in
family-run businesses who have
invested their life savings into
making taxi services available
for their communities and now
they’re struggling to keep those
businesses on the road. When they
are hit with a common renewal
date for Rego and CTP, they can be
up for tens of thousands of dollars
that they simply cannot afford and
that their competitors don’t have
to pay.
“It’s only a matter of time before
taxi operators hit the wall if the
Queensland Government doesn’t
act urgently to fix the current
CTP scheme for the personalised
transport sector.”
In recent weeks, one of Brisbane’s
largest and most professional
operators has been forced to call
in the administrators due solely to
exorbitantly high CTP costs.
“Professional operators, who
have been servicing our State for
more than 35 years, shouldn’t be
forced into administration and
possible bankruptcy because
the CTP scheme unfairly
disadvantages their businesses
but not their competitors. What
kind of message is this sending
to local Queensland businesses?”
questioned Mr Davies.
“If a driver drives a cab Monday
to Thursday and then drives an
Uber on Friday and Saturday,
how is he or she a lower risk on
those days than when driving a
cab? It is the same person doing
much the same work. The CTP
scheme isn’t keeping up with the
realities of life in the personalised
transport sector. The Government
has to take responsibility for the
regulatory distortion in its CTP
scheme, own the problem, and
commit to fixing it.”
“Victoria is moving to remove
unfairness in its CTP schemes
from 1 July and so why can’t
Queensland do the same? Quite
literally with a stroke of the pen,
the Queensland Government could
fix its CTP scheme to remove the
disadvantage for taxis and allow
local small businesses to compete
with Uber on far more even terms,”
concluded Mr Davies.
36 DRIVE A2B magazine · June 2018