WATS Pick-up Bonus

The New South Wales Government has announced a trial of a bonus payments to encourage more taxi drivers to carry passengers in wheelchairs.

Drivers will get an extra $7.70 a trip in the trial, which is expected to cost $1.5 million. Transport Minister John Watkins says bookings for wheelchair-accessible journeys in taxis are growing between 4 and 10 per cent every year.

"The payment is designed to improve reliability and response time for passengers and to really encourage those drivers to make those calls," he said.

"There's a growing number of people in wheelchairs that are depending upon taxi transport and the industry's been saying for a while that an extra incentive would really assist."

Mr Watkins says it has been very difficult for passengers in wheelchairs to get taxis in the past. "Clearly, we need to do better and this is one way of encouraging that finite number of wheelchair-accessible taxis and actually concentrate their efforts on those wheelchair jobs," he said. "By providing an extra $7.70 per trip, we hope that really is an encouragement. It's worked well in a trial previously so we expected it to work."

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has welcomed the program but says it should not be on a trial basis.Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes says he is concerned even if the trial is successful, it may not become a permanent fixture.

"This Government is a bit noted for trialing things and then not having them brought into place permanently," he said. "They trialed a smart card rather than a voucher system for the vouchers for people with disabilities using taxis about two or three years ago. "The trial worked very well and then it wasn't implemented as a permanent arrangement."

The ATDA comment on the NSW Government's latest patch on a system that really needs a total overhaul is just that. It fails to clarify who is paying for the $7.70, or to address the real issue of when the meter is turned off : on arrival at the destination or after the Wheelchair passenger is safely on the footpath.

The ATDA had recommended to IPART that a IPART that a $25.00 WATS Lift Fee be charged wholly on the TTSS Government subsidy dockets and charged back to the networks running "Nexus Plates" on their standard unrestricted taxis. That was the original idea of issuing free plates.

We also strongly feel that wheelchair users should not pay more for their essential taxi service than any other person, and that therefore all the pick-up and set-down extra costs are not payable by the passenger.

The compensation for extra costs must be made to the driver by the networks already getting a free "nexus" ride.

$25.00 is about the right amount to cover the costs of the driver, especially now that WATS are being bailed out to drivers rather than being operated by the plate owner who gets the advantages of special WATS Plate Lease Fees.