‘It’s irresponsible by the regulator’: MP slams taxi and hire car authority

Transport Matters Party MP Rod Barton says touting at the airport and other large scale events will only get worse because of the massive inflation of driver numbers that the Taxi Services Commission has allowed.

Mr Barton, who was a cab driver for almost 30 years, told Neil Mitchell Melbourne Airport gets “hundreds of complaints” about touting each year.

“What we’re concerned about is people who are jumping into cars where the driver may not be accredited, the vehicle may not be accredited, there may be no insurance,” he said.

“We’ve gone from 5600 cabs to nearly 12,000 cabs and in the hire-car space, including Uber, we’ve gone from 2000 to nearly 50,000.

“The market cannot carry a 750 per cent increase, it’s irresponsible by the regulator.

“We’ve got 90,000 drivers now trying to scratch a living.

“Everybody is doing it (touting), when I was working at the races last year I had some Uber drivers try to tout me.”

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