SIRA’s view on how NSW taxi premiums compare to ride share?
Ride sharing companies have the technology that enables them to readily identify when the vehicle is being used for ride sharing purposes only and how many fare paying kilometres are travelled.
NSW Taxis have a combination of booked fares and ‘rank and hale’ and at this point in time they cannot efficiently distinguish between all kilometres travelled and fare paying kilometres.
Ride sharing drivers pay a Class 1 premium like other passenger vehicles but from 1 April they will also pay a 10 cents-per-kilometre CTP component for fare paying kilometres travelled or 6.6 cents per kilometre if the journey started in a country region.
Taxis also pay cents-per-kilometre for CTP but this is for all kilometres travelled. This includes the kilometres travelled between fares and while driving around looking for passengers.
Taxis therefore pay a lower cents-per-kilometre than ride share – 5 cents for metro taxis and 3.3 cents for country taxis.
Introducing the cents-per-kilometre premiums for ride share and taxis is a step towards a fairer setting of premiums across all point-to-point services.