ࡱ> ;=:M -0bjbj== .<WW-,lRRRRRRRfBBBB Nfvvvvvvvv$} l,Rvvvvv,RRvvAvvRvRvv RRvj !fBW0,  ffRRRRWESTERN SYDNEY REGION FORUM OF ACCESS COMMITTEES SUBMISSION TO HREOC INQUIRY INTO ACCESS TO ACCESSIBLE TAXIS 15 JUNE, 2001. BACKGROUND: The Western Sydney Region Forum of Access Committees (the Forum), was an initiative of Blacktown City Council, to get together the Access Committees of the local government areas in the Western Region. It was formed out of a Steering Committee held at Blacktown in September 1997. It represents the local government areas of Auburn, Parramatta, Holroyd, Fairfield, Liverpool, Penrith, Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Baulkham Hills and Blacktown. The main issue in bringing the access committees together was the slow introduction of accessible transport, primarily buses, since the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act. It was very quickly brought to the attention of the Forum that a number of problems related to accessible taxis. Although it became apparent that the private bus companies were making efforts to introduce accessible buses, little was evident in relation to accessible taxis, particularly the Zero 200 booking system. From a number of issues raised at various meetings, the Forum decided to seek a deputation to discuss the issues with the Minister for Transport. The Forum was granted access to the Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Mr Kevin Moss MP, and he called out to Blacktown on 23 April 2001 to discuss transport issues with delegates representing a number of Access Committees. Many of the issues discussed are covered in this submission. RESPONSE TIMES: The most common concern raised at various meetings is making a booking through the Zero 200 system but the taxi not turning up at the required time. Members from Fairfield City Access Committee have missed a number of meetings of the Forum or have had other problems relating to bookings not being honoured. As the meeting venues, dates and times are determined up to 12 months in advance, the members have plenty of time to arrange bookings in advance. Investigation has found that it is of no value making bookings well in advance unless the booking is followed up. Why should the person booking the taxi have to follow the matter up? It appears that the booking isnt notified to the network of cabs until a short time before the time that the taxi is required. At that time, all available taxis can be engaged or being used for other purposes, such as multiple-hire airport run if the taxi is a maxi-taxi and authorised for that purpose. One would expect that special purpose taxis for wheelchair access would have a system that would enable a booking to be made in advance and that booking be honoured. Page 2 Otherwise, the Zero200 operator should inform the person making the booking of a reference number and that they need to check again say an hour before the required time and to quote the reference number. There appears to be too little information available on how the system operates. Some information has been provided from other members of the Forum. From Baulkham Hills Access Committee comes the following;- Waiting periods of up to two hours from Westmead Hospital at 4am were experienced. Clients of Community Transport have experienced waits of up to 4 hrs on average. Taxis will not go to certain areas of the Shire(Baulkham Hills) such as Kenthurst and Annangrove. EXISTING FLEET: Concerns have been expressed that the existing accessible vehicles are not meeting the needs of the community while they are too expensive to provide. Fortunately, the old stretched VL Commodores with fibreglass roof extensions, seem to be a thing of the past. The first type of replacement seemed to be commuter buses. These are not generally acceptable to the broad community who prefer the sedan/station wagon type taxis such as the Falcon. It then became apparent that the commuter bus form of taxi would become maxi taxis which could be authorised as multiple hire vehicles. These seem to be used for the more lucrative Airport operations so the mobility impaired are still no better off even if additional licences have been made available by the state government. There have also been complaints by wheelchair bound passengers that the ride provided by the Nissan Urvan and Toyota equivalents, causes serious pain to them especially in riding over speed humps and other traffic management devices. Many of the current generation accessible taxis appear to be Mercedes Benz Vito or the Falcon Station Wagon based Flashe cab. These would seem to be a compromise but what most customers want to see is an universal cab. The argument is that if all new generation buses are ultra low-floor, wheelchair accessible why cant all new taxis be equally accessible? All new buses will be of this type once existing fleets are replaced. Why cant the same practice be used in relation to taxis? The answer from the Taxi Council and other informed authorities would be that the standard Falcon/Commodore taxi costs in the region of $30,000. An imported, purpose-built taxi costs as much as $80,000 and may not be appealing enough to be used by the general public when they can ride in Falcon or Commodore. There is a perception that if you are riding in an accessible taxi, you must be disabled. Some people have a problem with that. There is a concern that the majority of new licences being taken up, are being allocated to areas other than the Western Sydney Region. Statistics would indicate that the largest numbers of people with disabilities, reside in this Region. There is a perception that there are insufficient accessible taxis in this Region. Page 3 FUTURE FLEET: Various examples of multi purpose taxis exist throughout the UK, US and Europe. A member of the Forum provided a photograph of a taxi in Las Vegas where all taxis are accessible. The taxi is accessed by a side entry hydraulic ramp and the person in a wheelchair positioned in a vacant space next to the driver while seated passengers occupy the rear seats. Other examples are the London FIAT Scootoo and the redesigned London Taxi called the TXI. Mr Howard Harrison of the NSW Taxi Council, has previously addressed the Forum on these examples. Mr Harrison advised that at the time, he was Chairman of a working party looking at the design for a purpose built taxi. He indicated that in response to a survey and the accepted requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act, the purpose built taxi would require a head height of 1410mm to 1500mm with a 1500mm door entry height and 850mm door width. These measurements should cover 95% of potential users. Mr Harrison then indicated that under the above measurements, the US example, the FIAT Scootoo, the London TXI and modified Chrysler Voyager, failed to comply. At a recent meeting with members from the Forum, the NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Mr Kevin Moss MP, indicated that the combined meeting of Transport Ministers has failed to reach agreement on a purpose built taxi. Agreement cannot be achieved on the vehicles design or the footprint for wheelchair access. As much as it is argued that the Mercedes Benz Vito and Falcon Station Wagon Flashe Cab are compromises, modified Chrysler Voyager and Toyota Tarago are becoming available . Both of these vehicles would also appear to be compromises. Previously it was argued that all new buses would eventually be wheelchair accessible. It has been suggested that compliant buses are only marginally more expensive than standard buses and the price gap would reduce as demand for accessible buses increased. In a few years, the standard bus would be the low floor, accessible bus. With taxis, compromise vehicles are at least twice the price of standard vehicles. No one is willing to undertake the exercise of manufacturing a purpose built taxi because of the cost and the small volume. It has been indicated that some European manufacturers have now gone into liquidation. The Federal Government needs to provide taxation relief on the import of suitable vehicles as the previous attempt to import a purpose built taxi, attracted a luxury tax. Incentives need to be introduced to encourage taxi cab providers to purchase one of the compromise examples rather than the basic Falcon or Commodore. The Forum has been encouraged by an announcement last year that some 600 Chrysler Voyager/Toyota Tarago based taxis would soon be available from a company called Unicab. In a letter dated 7 June 2001, the NSW Department of Transport indicates that the introduction of these taxis has been further delayed owing to a worldwide demand for the base vehicle. Page 4 TAXI VOUCHERS: A major concern is the value of the taxi vouchers for customers in the Western Sydney Region. The subsidy has a maximum value of $30. As greater distance has to be travelled to the major attractions in the Region and to the City or Mascot Airport, customers have to pay a larger portion of the taxi fare than people in the inner city or areas east of Auburn. The Department of Transport has indicated that they cannot provide a Region based voucher system as this would be interpreted as being discriminatory. Rather than a dollar system, it would be preferable to have a the voucher represent a % value. What needs to occur is that the subsidy of the voucher should be 50% of the fare regardless of distance travelled. This way, all entitled taxi voucher holders will be treated equally and fairly in that they will only have to pay half the fare. RECOMMENDATIONS: Taxi bookings on the Zero 200 network, should provide the caller with a reference number at the time of placing the call. The operator should then inform the caller that they need to check one hour before the time the taxi is required, to ensure the booking has been accepted by a taxi driver or the booking placed on the network. The caller needs to quote the reference number at the time they call back. All future taxis should be accessible. To achieve this, the various governments, taxi providers and vehicle manufacturers need to devise an implementation plan whereby a suitable vehicle can be available at a cost comparable with the basic Commodore/Falcon. This may result in the Federal Government forgoing Luxury Tax, Import Duty and/or providing a subsidy to the industry to ensure DDA compliance. More accessible taxi licenses to be allocated to the Western Sydney Region to ensure that the majority of people with a disability have an accessible taxi available for their use. The taxi subsidy scheme needs to be modified to provide for a 50% rebate of the taxi fare rather than a dollar value based scheme currently available. This would provide a system whereby every voucher holder would be treated equally and fairly. KEN MARSH SECRETARY 21 JUNE 2001. 2t ` ''$+6+0-0 5>*\5\>*5CJ(OJQJ\12st PQRSZ[\yz$a$$a$-0` !!%%'''''''''''#+$a$$a$#+$+5+6+,_./ 0 0 000-0h^h & F ,1h. A!"#$%  i8@8 NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH >`> Heading 1$h@&^h 5>*<A@< Default Paragraph Font6>@6 Title$a$5CJ(OJQJ\2B@2 Body Text$a$5\-,<12st P Q R S Z [ \ y z `!!############'$'5'6'(_*+ , , ,,,/,00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0 0 0 000000-0#+-0-0 |v|""',+,/,BCCjC:\Documents and Settings\marshk\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of HREOC SUBMISSION.asdBCCjC:\Documents and Settings\marshk\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of HREOC SUBMISSION.asdBCCjC:\Documents and Settings\marshk\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of HREOC SUBMISSION.asdBCCjC:\Documents and Settings\marshk\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of HREOC SUBMISSION.asdBCCjC:\Documents and Settings\marshk\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of HREOC SUBMISSION.asdBCCH:\WORD\HREOC SUBMISSION.docBCCH:\WORD\HREOC SUBMISSION.docBCCH:\WORD\HREOC SUBMISSION.docBCCH:\WORD\HREOC SUBMISSION.docBCCH:\WORD\HREOC SUBMISSION.doc% $Dh^`.h^`.hpLp^p`L.h@ @ ^@ `.h^`.hL^`L.h^`.h^`.hPLP^P`L.%          @,,,,s,,,-,P@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial?& Arial Black"qh7sV/Vcm$M$0, ,2QWESTERN SYDNEY REGION FORUMBCCBCCOh+'0t  0 < HT\dlWESTERN SYDNEY REGION FORUMESTBCCCCCCNormal BCC8CMicrosoft Word 9.0O@F9@f}@ cm$՜.+,0 hp  Blacktown City CouncilM, WESTERN SYDNEY REGION FORUM Title  !"#$%&'()+,-./013456789<Root Entry F>1Table WordDocument.<SummaryInformation(*DocumentSummaryInformation82CompObjjObjectPool  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q