ictorians overcharged or refused a meter in taxis have little recourse, Australia’s taxi giant says, as it joins a chorus of industry players calling for action to end the national crisis of cab drivers going rogue.
Guardian Australia was contacted by multiple customers reporting that their complaints to the body were not progressed, and that lodging claims was difficult compared with states such as NSW, with its taxi complaint hotline. “He refused to let us into his cab until we forked out $37 cash for a trip of about a kilometre,” Benson, 83, says. “We are in our eighties and were too tired after our long train journey to question it,” she says. The same trip the next day using a taxi meter cost $11, she adds.
“The system is rewarding the worst performers. It places pressure on companies with safety and fatigue management systems in place to enforce them so the customer experience is good.” “But in the taxi industry we have a second payment terminal that is not connected to the meter, which can say that shopping actually isn’t $60, it’s $160 if the driver puts that amount in … We want that outlawed.”