Slow arrivals for Victorian taxi service for disabled
A Victorian report called ‘Time to Respond’ on the state’s wheelchair-access taxi system, which was designed to offer disabled people more freedom, has highlighted the frequency of very lengthy delays.
The executive officer for Action for Community Living, David Craig, said that the system “continues to be a discriminatory practice. A taxi service that’s available to all Victorians ought to be the same regardless of whether you have a disability or not. The taxi services for those with a disability fall a long way short of any sort of comparison”.
Although the Victorian government monitored multi-purpose taxis to ensure that priority was given to people with disabilities, each taxi is also licensed to carry non-disabled passengers. This increased competition for all passengers with the limited number of taxis dispersed across the metropolitan area.
Mr Craig said the situation was made more difficult by the number of wheelchair-access taxis which waited at Melbourne airport to take large groups of people at greater expense on long trips. He said that there were many good drivers who looked after their regular customers but often disabled people had to develop individual arrangements to avoid the delays of going through a phone booking system.
The acting communications manager of the Victorian Taxi Directorate, Amanda Correy, said that the directorate had been in discussions with disability groups in an effort to improve the level of services. A new industry accreditation scheme is due to begin operating in 2008.
