DRIVE A2B February 2021
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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.
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VICTORIA<br />
NEWS<br />
The MPTP scheme<br />
must be managed<br />
transparently.<br />
Whereas when using the Uber app,<br />
cardholders are only required to<br />
enter their card details once and the<br />
information is saved for all future trips.<br />
It is not uncommon for people to allow<br />
others to make bookings through<br />
their personal Uber account. One can<br />
foresee how easily this will be misused.<br />
My greatest fear though is for the<br />
safety of passengers. The government<br />
decided that rideshare vehicles don’t<br />
need regulated security cameras such<br />
as those required in taxis, which means<br />
there is a substantial safety and injury<br />
risk.<br />
You can’t just let an occasional Uber<br />
driver pick up a person with special<br />
needs.<br />
Uber has also gone to great lengths,<br />
spending up big on high-priced<br />
lawyers to say it doesn’t employ or isn't<br />
responsible for its drivers – if a special<br />
needs passenger is injured or worse,<br />
abused or attacked, the victim will<br />
have no recourse.<br />
What’s more, sensitive information<br />
about the special needs passengers is<br />
disclosed via the Uber app, which is an<br />
unacceptable breach of government<br />
policy.<br />
And then there is the fact that a<br />
large part of taxpayer dollars used to<br />
support the MPTP scheme will now go<br />
offshore in Uber commissions and its<br />
tax-dodging operations.<br />
This organisation has defied regulatory<br />
responsibility at every turn – from<br />
operating illegally, denying its drivers<br />
rights under workplace laws, refusing<br />
to provide answers to the Australian<br />
Tax Office, hindering local police<br />
investigations by redirecting queries to<br />
their main office in California and even<br />
dodging questions at a Parliamentary<br />
Inquiry.<br />
I have asked Minister for Transport, Ben<br />
Carroll, to table the risk assessments,<br />
Ministerial briefs and financial<br />
agreements with Uber in Parliament.<br />
The Multi Purpose Taxi Program is<br />
funded by the taxpayer to support<br />
people who are vulnerable and have<br />
special needs – it must be managed<br />
transparently and not used as a backdoor<br />
cash cow for a company such as<br />
Uber that repeatedly argues that it is<br />
not responsible for its drivers.<br />
Rod Barton MP<br />
Leader, Transport Matters Party<br />
20<br />
<strong>DRIVE</strong> <strong>A2B</strong> magazine · www.drivea2b.com.au · <strong>February</strong> <strong>2021</strong>
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