​$22.7 FOR VICTORIAN COMMERCIAL PASSENGER VEHICLE INDUSTRY

One of the largest support packages in the country for the taxi and hire car industry.
 
Victorian government has announced a $22.7 million package for the Victorian Taxi and Hire Car industry.

This industry has suffered an enormous impact due to the COVID-19 crisis, seeing an 80% drop in taxi demand and close to 100% drop in hire car demand.

Taxis, in particular, are an essential service that play a vitally important role in our society. For many Victorians, taxis are the only form of transport available to them, especially people in wheelchairs and those who live in regional and rural Victoria. The government has an obligation to support taxi services for Victorians who rely on them and to ensure they are there as the economy recovers.

Even though some taxi drivers have qualified for government support, many taxi drivers are vulnerable workers living taxi fare to taxi fare.  It is these drivers who are the ones providing transport services to Victorian’s most vulnerable people and those with no other transport options.

Hire cars are an important link in the transport chain and many hire car operators are accessing JobKeeper or JobSeeker and qualify for other government small business grants. This also applies to ride-share drivers.
Rod Barton, Leader Transport Matters Party, came into Parliament to represent the taxi and hire car industry, to hold the government to account and, when needed, work with the government in addressing the challenges that the industry faces.

“The government took a risk in asking me, a non-government member, to be part of a Commercial Passenger Vehicle (CPV) Advisory Panel with the task of advising the Minister for Transport on measures to assist the CVP industry during this time”, said Mr Barton.

The recommendations that Rod Barton MP made as a member of the Panel are grouped into three clear objectives and all of these recommendations have been accepted by the Andrews government as a package totalling $22.7 million.

These targeted and effective initiatives are a good start in addressing the challenges the industry is facing.

TRANSPORT FOR VULNERABLE VICTORIANS

• Doubling the wheelchair lifting fee from $20.80 to $41.60 per lift for accessible vehicles
• Increasing the MPTP fund from 50 percent to 70 percent
• Subsidising taxi drivers $250 per month for each active operational taxi vehicle

 
A COVID-19 SAFE INDUSTRY

• Cleaning and sanitation grants program covering both regional and metro Booking Service Providers (BSPs)
• Providing CPVs with a new set of cleaning standards that match both community and driver expectations

 
ENSURING A VIABLE CPV INDUSTRY

• Rebating CPV drivers the $1 levy paid from April to June 2020
• $1million fund for regional taxi Booking Service Providers where significant community detriment can be demonstrated without additional government assistance

This is in addition to initiatives the government has already made, ie:

• pausing of regulatory fees for both driver and vehicle, and
• $1500 COVID-19 Worker Support Payment for drivers who contract the virus or are required to self-isolate.

And it’s not over yet!

The Minister for Transport, Ben Carroll, has asked Rod Barton MP to continue as a member of the CPV Advisory Panel to identify further opportunities to utilise CPVs, assist and oversee the implementation of this assistance package and to undertake a further review in three months.

This will complement the already agreed role to implement any government endorsed recommendations from the Inquiry into the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Act 2017 reforms, that was undertaken late last year and due for response by the end of 2020.
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It was definitely due to Rod Barton’s input that the Victorian CPV industry has received such a substantial funding allocation and this package is the best and most targeted CPV funding package in Australia.

Rod has worked very closely with the current Minister for Transport, Ben Carroll, previous Minister for Transport, Melissa Horne and Member for Oakleigh, Steve Dimopoulos.  It is a great achievement to be a non-government Member of Parliament on a government advisory panel.