Ridiculous! CPVV is allowing Uber to participate in the MPTP system

The Victorian Regulator (CPVV) has announced that it has PARTNERED with Uber and is allowing Uber to participate in the MPTP system – the subsidy scheme that allows people with a severe or permanent disability to get a 50% subsidy when travelling in taxis.  How ridiculous!!

There are so many things wrong with this.  Minister for Public Transport, Ben Carroll, how can you condone this action?  How can you allow the Regulator to decimate the taxi industry?

Wasn’t it bad enough that the Victorian government allowed Uber to operate illegally for 3 years and infiltrate the Victorian taxi and hire car industry?  But now you have hit them in the guts again.

Firstly, just because we have had 0/0 days of COVID-19, the world is still in a pandemic.  At recent CPVV meetings Uber have admitted that their drivers HAVE NOT been CLEANING their vehicles after each passenger – yet this is a MANDATORY requirement of the CPVV.

So, Uber gets a slap on the wrist and gets told to up their game and tell their drivers to clean their cars – but it is still not happening.  I know of passengers who, just last week, took an Uber and their drivers told them that they don’t bother to clean their vehicles, as there’s no COVID-19 in Victoria at the moment – so why bother!!!
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Secondly, does this mean that all Uber drivers will undertake TRAINING on how to assist and manage passengers who may have a disability?  Will they undertake TRAINING to assist passengers with severe medical issues?  How is the average Billy Bob going to know how to assist these special people in our community?
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Thirdly, CPVV is always harping on the fact that it is the SAFETY REGULATOR, yet it allows Uber vehicles to undergo a 12 minute roadworthy check and say that the car is fit for purpose to operate as a commercial passenger vehicle.  They don’t even have to have their underbody viewed whilst hoisted.

How is it that there appears to be ONE SET OF RULES for TAXIS and ANOTHER SET for Uber?  Minister Ben Carroll, where is the LEVEL PLAYING FIELD this industry was promised back in 2017?

Minister Carroll, your department – CPVV – the Safety Regulator, has gone too far this time.  It has taken away the last bit of work that makes taxis different from rideshare!!  Why are you DESTROYING THIS INDUSTRY?

You are allowing Uber drivers to transport our vulnerable community members in cars that are not necessarily clean and not up to standard, have no cameras installed, with drivers who have been given no training on how to assist these passengers.  These drivers are part timers – they don’t care who their passengers are – they just care about the fares.

And you are allowing them to take the cream of the MPTP work.  Uber DOES NOT have any Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs) – they can only transport those whose collapsible walking aids fit into their boot.  It used to be that those who wished to provide services to MPTP cardholders had to have WAVs as part of their fleet – and rightly so. 

But along comes Uber and they get handed this segment of the CPV passengers on a golden platter.

Minister Carroll, MPTP stands for Multi Purpose Taxi Program – are you now saying that Uber vehicles are TAXIS?  C’mon Minister – nowhere else in Australia have they done this.  No other state is letting Uber get a part of its TSS – Taxi Subsidy Scheme.  Why is Victoria so hell bent on being the first state to totally kill the taxi industry?  Why are you taking money out of the mouths of so many taxi drivers by allowing this to happen?