Get To Know: Paul Nicolau, Director, Business Leaders Council, Australia Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Paul has over 25 years’ experience in senior management roles, marketing, business development, networking, stakeholder engagement, fundraising and event management. He is a passionate, hardworking, and committed professional that wants businesses and organisations he is involved with to succeed.

Paul is determined to help many charitable causes raise money to assist those in need and increase the awareness of these respective entities in our community.

Paul is currently working with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry which represents over 300,000 businesses that employ over 4 million Australians.

Your one and only Australian industry magazine has had a name change!

DRIVE NOW - Voice of the Australian Commercial Passenger Transport Industry.

For 51 years (from May 1966 - April 2017) our magazine was known as Taxi Talk - Voice of the Victorian Taxi Industry.

Back in May 2017 we rebranded the magazine to be DRIVE A2B in light of the fact that the passenger transport industry is no longer only about taxis. We found that we were reporting on news for taxis, hire cars, limousine services and rideshare entities.
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However, late 2017, Cabcharge Australia also had a name change — becoming A2B Australia.

The week of 12 April 2021 saw me travelling through western Victoria, and catching up with the taxi industry in several towns including Bendigo, Hamilton and Portland. Hearing about the taxi industry in regional Victoria is one thing, but seeing it in person is another – and the journey was emotional but enlightening and necessary.

In Bendigo, I visited Bendigo Taxis to witness its dispatch operations and meet the directors, and find out how the taxi industry was surviving in Bendigo.

Uber is spending US$250 million to persuade drivers to get back on the road so it can pay them less again.

USA & CANADA — Uber has announced it plans to spend an additional US$250 million on “boosted incentives and guarantees” to persuade drivers to get back on the road amid a shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“In 2020, many drivers stopped driving because they couldn’t count on getting enough trips to make it worth their time. In 2021, there are more riders requesting trips than there are drivers available to give them — making it a great time to be a driver,” Dennis Cinelli, the head of Uber’s US and Canada ride-hailing business, said in a blog post.

A dozen drivers of taxis, buses and rideshare vehicles have been taken off the road in the wake of an IT bungle that allowed people to register for licences without criminal record checks.

More drivers are also under investigation as authorities move to clean up the error that began in July 2018.

In March it was revealed that almost 3000 drivers of commercial passenger vehicles may have been illegally on the road with a criminal record for years.

​The licensing system used to match applications with police data did not work for 2.5 years, with an internal probe later revealing 2950 names that matched criminal records.