Current taxi regulations are due to expire on 27 June 2016. Victorian law requires regulations to be reviewed and re-made every 10 years to ensure their relevance.

On 2 May, new draft regulations were released by the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources and can be found here.

It is important to be clear that this process is required by law and is completely separate from ongoing considerations of Government on how to deal with the emergence of raid hailing providers in Victoria.

We have expressed our views many times of what the future of commercial passenger vehicle (CPV) regulation should be. 

Fundamentally, the VTA believes that taxi and hire car regulations must reflect the context within which the industry finds itself and provides a genuinely level playing field on which we can all compete for the customer.

Taxi regulation must reflect the changes in the real world and move from highly-prescriptive regulations to a simple set of rules which focus on the desired outcomes for passengers with the scope for service providers to be innovative, differentiate themselves and more flexibly respond to the changing preferences of our customers.

We want to see regulations used as a powerful tool to transition the CPV industry from a heavily regulated and directed industry to one which is market oriented and genuinely competitive. 

You can read our full submission in response to the regulations here.