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What is On-demand transport?
On-demand transport is a flexible type of transport, where passengers or hirers choose where and when their trip starts and ends.
You can book on-demand transport well in advance, or for immediate departure. It includes a range of transport services, such as:
- on-demand rank or hail (taxi);
- on-demand charter, including:
- rideshare;
- limousines;
- charter vehicles (e.g. private airport transfers);
- charter buses (e.g. school excursions);
- contracted buses or vehicles (e.g. mining companies); and
- party buses.
On-demand transport is a type of passenger transport. Passenger transport is the transport of passengers by a vehicle for hire or reward.
The On-demand Transport business unit at the Department of Transport (DoT) regulates the passenger transport industry.
What does 'hire or reward' mean?
You are generally driving for hire or reward if:
- the passengers or hirers of the vehicle have paid, or are required to pay, an amount to use the service; or
- you get paid to drive the vehicle as a primary part of your job, even if the passengers aren’t paying for the service; or
- you get paid directly by the passengers for the service.
You are only considered to be driving for hire or reward if the driving is more than an incidental part of your general employment duties. It is not related to how frequently the driving might occur.
You are not likely to be driving for hire or reward if you are a volunteer and the passenger/hirer have not paid for the service.
For more information, visit What are passenger transport driver authorisations.
| Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020 | ||
Other types of passenger transport
Tourism passenger transport (TPT) is the transport of tourists for hire and reward to a destination listed on advertised publicly available tour itinerary.
Regular passenger transport (RPT) is the transport of passengers for hire and reward that is conducted according to regular routes and timetables.
The vehicles and drivers involved in TPT and RPT are regulated by the On-demand Transport business unit at the Department of Transport.
Community and courtesy transport
Community and courtesy transport are types of passenger transport services that are not primarily established with a view to profit or commercial gain. This means that while a fee may be charged, the main purpose of the service is not to make a profit or generate any form of compensation, monetary or otherwise.
A community transport service:
- benefits people within a local community who are in need of some form of assistance; or
- assists people or groups to participate to a greater degree to the life of a community; or
- achieves a community, charitable, educational, benevolent, religious, recreational, sporting or philanthropic purpose at the local level.
For example:
- a charitable organisation providing a vehicle to transport aged care residents to medical appointments;
- sporting clubs providing a bus for their players to get to away games; and
- a local government providing a bus to transport people to a community event.
A courtesy transport service is provided as a courtesy to customers or patrons of another primary service. The primary service cannot be on-demand, tourism, or regular passenger transport.
For example:
- a courtesy vehicle provided by a car repair service, to transport customers to a central location; and
- a free hotel shuttle bus transporting tourists from the airport to their accommodation.
What passenger transport authorisations are needed?
Community and courtesy transport services generally do not require on-demand booking service (ODBS), passenger transport vehicle (PTV) or passenger transport driver (PTD) authorisations, however there are some exceptions.
- You will need an ODBS authorisation if you are also taking or facilitating bookings for on-demand trips.
- You will need a PTV authorisation if your vehicle is also used for other types of passenger transport services.
- You will need a PTD authorisation if driving passengers is more than an incidental part of your paid employment.
| Community and courtesy transport fact sheet | Kb | |
Passenger transport subsidies
The On-demand Transport business unit at DoT administers a range of travel subsidy schemes.
Taxi User Subsidy Scheme
The Taxi User Subsidy Scheme (TUSS) is a subsidy of up to 75% per trip, available to certain eligible people with disability travelling in an on-demand rank or hail (taxi) vehicle.
Student Travel Subsidy Scheme
The Student Travel Subsidy Scheme provides travel assistance to eligible full-time enrolled school and tertiary students who live in Western Australia to overcome geographical isolation from schools and other educational institutions.
Pensioner Annual Free Trip Scheme
The Pensioner Annual Free Trip Scheme entitles pensioners who live north of the 26th parallel to one return journey by air or coach per year to Perth or elsewhere in the South West Land Division (provided the fare is not greater than that to Perth).
Other transport-related subsidies administered by different government departments may be available to you – you can find a full list at ConcessionsWA.
| ConcessionsWA | ||
|---|---|---|
Glossary of common on-demand transport terms
Below is a guide to common terminology and acronyms used when referring to the on-demand transport industry in WA.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Charter service |
An on-demand passenger transport service that does not include a rank or hail service. |
| Charter vehicle | A vehicle with a passenger transport vehicle (PTV) authorisation in the on-demand charter (OD-C) category. See ‘Passenger transport vehicle (PTV) authorisation' below for more information about PTV categories. |
| Community passenger transport |
The transport of passengers undertaken by a not-for-profit service whose purpose is to improve the community they service.
For example, a local government service transporting seniors to appointments, shopping or events. |
| Courtesy passenger transport |
Transport provided to a customer, where the transport is additional to the primary service provided. No profit is taken by the provider as a result of the courtesy transport service. |
| ICWA | Insurance Commission of Western Australia. |
| Motor injury insurance (MII) | Vehicle owners pay a motor injury insurance premium to cover the cost of injury that they or their vehicles may cause in a crash. |
| On-demand booking service (ODBS) | A provider who takes or communicates passenger requests for an on-demand trip and connects the customer with a vehicle and driver; or a driver who makes arrangements directly with the passenger for an on-demand trip. |
| On-demand booking service (ODBS) authorisation | The authorisation issued to provide an on-demand booking service. A list of authorised on-demand booking service providers is available – you can search by authorisation number, booking service name or other business names. |
| On-demand passenger transport levy (the Levy) | The Levy was 10% of every on-demand fare to a maximum of $10 per trip, but has now ended. The Levy applied to on-demand trips in vehicles that seat 12 or less people (including driver) that start and finish in the Perth, Mandurah or Murray areas. It is expected the Levy would apply for approximately four years, but concluded on 31 May 2022, 11 months ahead of schedule. |
| On-demand transport | Transport of passengers for hire or reward where the passenger or hirer determines the locations for the beginning and end of the journey, as well as the time of travel. |
| On-demand Transport (OdT) | This acronym refers to the DoT business unit, not the industry in general. |
| Passenger transport driver (PTD) authorisation | An authorisation for a person who drives a vehicle for the purpose of transporting passengers for hire or reward. The passenger transport driver (PTD) authorisation was introduced on 1 July 2020, replacing F and T extensions. |
| Passenger transport service |
Passenger transport is the transport of passengers by a vehicle for hire or reward. Passenger transport services include on-demand, tourism, regular or other prescribed passenger transport services. |
| Passenger transport vehicle | A vehicle used or intended to be used in providing a passenger transport service. |
| Passenger transport vehicle (PTV) authorisation |
An authorisation to operate a vehicle to provide a passenger transport service. This has replaced owned and leased taxi plates, country taxi licences, charter vehicle licences and regular passenger transport omnibus licences. There are four categories of passenger transport vehicle (PTV) authorisation:
|
| Rank or hail (taxi) service | A rank or hail service is an on-demand passenger transport service under which a person can hail or hire an on-demand vehicle while it is standing, plying or touting for hire on a road or in another place accessible to the public. This means they can offer trips to people on the side of the road or within a public space. |
| Rank or hail PTV (taxi) |
A vehicle with a PTV authorisation in the on-demand rank or hail (OD-RH) category. |
| Regular passenger transport (RPT) | The transport of passengers for hire and reward that is conducted according to regular routes and timetables. |
| Regular passenger transport service authorisation (RPTS authorisation) | An authorisation to provide a regular passenger transport service. |
| Safety duties and safety standards | The Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 outlines a range of safety duties and safety standards for passenger transport services, including the development and maintenance of a safety management system. |
| Safety management system (SMS) | A set of policies, procedures and plans that systematically manage health and safety at work by identifying safety risks and putting in place steps to mitigate them. |
| Tourism passenger transport (TPT) | The transport of passengers (tourists) for hire or reward to destinations listed on a publicly available tour itinerary, for the purposes of tourism. |
| Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 (the Act) | The Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 provides for the regulation of the road passenger transport industry in WA. It replaces the Taxi Act 1994 and Taxi Drivers Licensing Act 2014, and amends the Transport Coordination Act 1966 in relation to omnibus and country taxi-car licences. |
| Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020 (the Regulations) | The Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020 support the application and enforcement of the Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018. |
| Voluntary buyback for taxi plate owners (the buyback) |
The buyback offered eligible owners and former owners of metropolitan taxi plates the opportunity to sell their plates back to the WA government. The buyback is funded through the On-demand Passenger Transport Levy The estimated value of the buyback varied according to each plate owner's particular circumstances, including how long they owned the plate, the original price paid for it and how much the plate earned over time. The minimum offer for a metropolitan Conventional plate (minus Hardship Fund and outstanding fees) was $100,000. |
| Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA) website | ||
|---|---|---|
| Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 | ||
| Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020 | ||