This year has been a difficult one for many and especially the taxi and hire car industry. Despite these obstacles, I have not wavered in pursuing what is necessary for the taxi and hire car industry and its survival.

After six months of hard work and negotiations, I was part of the team who managed to get a $22 million package to support the industry.

A note from Rod Barton MLC...
Prior to this pandemic, the taxi and hire car industry had already been knocked down. COVID-19 was ultimately the nail in the coffin for individuals and families within the industry already struggling to survive. I need to point out again that there has been a major lack in economic support from the government for non-employing sole traders, whose livelihoods now depend on an effective recovery plan.

Late last month, I stood in Parliament to ask Minister Pulford, representative of the Minister of Transport, Ben Caroll, what the regulator, Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria (CPVV), was planning to do to ensure the taxi and hire car industry could move forward as Victorians come out of lockdown.

We recently undertook a survey on the type, make and colour of vehicle that our members within the taxi, hire car and limousine industry prefer and had quite a resounding response. Here are the results.

Top 5 vehicles that would be purchased for use in this industry.
1. Toyota 41%
2. Lexus 10%
3. Hyundai 2%
4. Holden 1%
5. Ford 1%

CPVV has confirmed that the Victorian Government is developing a customer (passenger) check-in system to support rapid contact tracing within the CPV industry.
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This passenger check-in system (rapid contact tracing) will be mandatory for fleets of commercial passenger vehicles to apply to all their vehicles. The government is aware that some organisations have already implemented such systems and they would certainly be able to continue using their existing systems, so long as it is able to integrate with DHHS’s computer system.