NSW NEWS: Travelling with Assistance Animals

All Australian commercial passenger transport vehicle drivers (including taxi, hire car, and rideshare vehicle drivers) have a legal obligation to accept passengers travelling with an assistance animal.

An assistance animal is a dog or other animal specifically trained to assist a person with a disability. All over Australia, the rule is the same.

​These assistance animals are not pets - they are trained animals and are required to meet a high standard of hygiene and behaviour.

People travelling with an assistance animal rely on their assistance animal for help every day, and they also rely on taxi, hire vehicle and rideshare drivers to get them where they need to go.

Any driver providing passenger services in a commercial passenger transport vehicle cannot refuse to transport a passenger with an assistance animal or an assistance animal in training.

The NSW Disability Reference Group (DRG), which the NSW Taxi Council chairs, took a proposal to the Point to Point Transport Commission to assist with developing an Assistance Animal Toolkit. The toolkit contains a range of user-friendly and easily shared resources to help service providers and drivers understand their legal obligations and role in supporting people travelling with a disability.

The resources in the toolkit have been developed to help taxi service providers, affiliated providers, and booking service providers in NSW inform and remind drivers of their legal obligations when providing passenger services to people travelling with an assistance animal.

​The NSW Taxi Council would like to thank the industry’s stakeholders, including the Disability Reference Group (DRG) members and the Point to Point Transport Commission, for their contribution to the development of the video and toolkit.
For further information on Assistance animals in the Point to Point Transport Industry, access the toolkit and watch the videos, please visit our website.