Live Wire #47 AUG/SEPT 2014 | Page 19

If you travel on CityLink or EastLink and your e-TAG is not detected, you may be issued with a Late Toll invoice or toll notice. This invoice includes tolls plus additional fees. To avoid any inconvenience and higher costs, we strongly recommend that your e-TAG is correctly installed and beeps each time you pass under a toll point.

Taxi Owners

As a Taxi Owner you are responsible for:

Providing an e-TAG® holder affixed correctly on the inside of the windscreen.

Removing expired stickers and attaching 2 new stickers, valid as at 1 July 2014, to the inside of your vehicles. Toll stickers can be collected at your depot and will show tolls for both CityLink and EastLink.

For the right tolls to be charged to an account, drivers are responsible at the start of each shift to correctly install an e-TAG into the holder. When a taxi is detected on CityLink or EastLink without a valid e-TAG, as the owner you may be issued with a Late Toll invoice or a toll invoice. This invoice includes tolls plus additional fees. To avoid any inconvenience and higher costs, we strongly recommend that an e-TAG is correctly installed and beeps each time the driver passes under a toll point.

To accommodate for the price rise, we recommend that you and your drivers review the way you manage your accounts. This may include an increase in top up amount or more regular top up.

For further assistance:

Email [email protected]

Call 1300 360 962

From 30 September 2014, it will be a regulatory requirement for all Victorian taxi operators to hold a third-party property insurance policy for all taxis they operate.

Whilst the Taxi Services Commission will not give advice as to the compliance or otherwise of particular insurance products on the market, the VTA encourages all operators to carefully consider the new requirements when speaking with current or potential providers.

We recommend you refer to the below 'implied conditions' regarding insurance to ensure you ask the right questions of any potential supplier. An operator must hold a third party property insurance policy with cover of at least $5,000,000 which is:

issued by a corporation authorised under the Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) to carry on an insurance business;

held in the Operator's own name, and

not held in any name other than the Operator's

Between now and 30 September 2014, the VTA anticipates there will be several new providers to enter the metropolitan taxi insurance market and we encourage all operators to be careful when considering insurance products to ensure they are compliant after 30 September 2014.

At the same time, indemnity requirements will come in to effect meaning all operators will be required to indemnify drivers for vehicle damage (including damage to the taxi) and for costs including legal costs associated with such vehicle damage.

Source: www.victaxi.com.au

TAXI INSURANCE

CONDITIONS IN VIC

STATE NEWS VIC 19