Why was turning them off even a thing in the first place?
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Because Brisbane drivers are cnuts.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Queensland taxi drivers will be mandated to turn on their meters for all rank and hail journeys, even if a pre-arranged price has been agreed to, in a bid to ensure passengers are not overcharged.
The state government signed off on the new regulations last week, with taxi drivers to face fines of up to $3,096, or be issued a penalty infringement notice of $309, if they are caught breaching the rules when they come into effect from October.
The new regulations will require drivers who are delivering a rank or hail taxi service to activate their meter regardless of whether a fare has been agreed to in advance with the passenger.
In Queensland, the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) regulates maximum taxi fares for those services that are hailed or taken from a rank.
A spokesperson for the department said that by displaying the maximum fare for all journeys on the meter, passengers would be able to identify if a driver was attempting to overcharge them.
The regulation's explanatory notes say there have been a number of incidents of taxis reportedly charging more than the maximum fare set out under the law, or refusing to take passengers who have requested the meter be turned on.
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This is great. The only issue I have is the fine is a set amount, instead of a percentage of income, with a floor of a set amount. That means this regulation will overtime become less helpful
That means this regulation will overtime become less helpful
Typically the legislation doesn't say "the fine is $X". It says something more like "the fine is X penalty units", with the dollar value of one penalty unit being defined elsewhere and indexed over time. So it still has the problem of being less of an impact for wealthy people compared to lower income people, but it's not a matter of becoming less effective over time.
Not just that, but there’s two values. The one in the primary legislation, which is usually quite high (it’s what QCAT/courts can apply) and the one in the State Penalties Enforcement Regulation which is usually about 1/10th the amount, and applies to “on the spot” fines. Nothing I’ve seen says that the “on the spot” regime is required to apply in any or all cases, so the taxi drivers can still be heavily stung if QPS or TMR gets sick of issuing PINs/TINs (penalty infringement notices/transport infringement notices)
Crazy they do all this dishonest measures while Uber and the likes are killing them. How is this the time to double down on ripping customers off
Because Brisbane drivers are nuts