The Victorian Government has identified commercial passenger vehicles as high-risk environments for the spread of COVID-19. The government's free QR Code service has a version specific for commercial passenger vehicles, and can be downloaded from – https://busreg.covid19.dhhs.vic. gov.au/vehicles/s/login/SelfRegister or scan the QR code shown to the left.

Owners of commercial passenger vehicles (CPVs) must now provide a digital record-keeping system, such as a QR code, which records:
• passenger’s first name
​• phone number
• date and time the passenger used the service
• registration number of the vehicle.
​
​In addition, owners are required by Department of Health to keep records of payroll and trip data.

Get To Know: Greg Killeen, Senior Policy & Advocacy Officer, Policy & Advocacy, Spinal Cords Injuries Australia

Greg has been the NSW Taxi Council Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT) Subcommittee Consumer Representative for about 4 years. Greg also joined the recently formed NSW Taxi Council’s Disability Reference Group representing Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA). 

Greg’s role aims to keep the NSW Taxi Service the best it can be to meet the needs of customers with a disability as well as those of the taxi drivers.

Greg acquired a spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegia and needs to use a power wheelchair. 
He also has a personal and professional interest to ensure all transport services are accessible, especially the Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT) Service which Greg has been reliant on since they started 40 years ago – back in 1981.

COVID-19 has impacted all spheres of society, severely affecting all industries globally and the transportation industry is no exception. Strict lockdowns, restricted travel has led the taxi, hire car and rideshare industry to suffer significant loss in business. With the increased concern around health and safety, drivers across the rideshare, healthcare and taxi industry were hesitant to drive patients and passengers, resulting in reduced capacity and impacting the services. Similarly, passengers also needed to feel safe while travelling in Uber, Ola or any other cab services.

Will Australia follow this same path?

Last month in Italy, Uber Eats and similar food delivery platforms were informed that their couriers were by law employees and not independent workers. They were subsequently fined a 733 million euros for violation of labour safety guidelines.
​
In the past, Uber has endeavoured to strategically eschew the application of existing employment law by relegating their drivers as “gig workers”. They claimed that their drivers were self-employed, private contractors – not workers.