David Byrnes relies on a wheelchair-accessible taxi to attend physiotherapy appointments. But earlier this year, the only accessible taxi in his home town of Goulburn was taken off the road.
Byrnes was a fire technician before having seven strokes in two years between 2017 and 2019, which left him paralysed on the left side of his body. He is now unable to drive, and says losing access to the taxi service was “isolating”.
Medical appointments, social engagements and recreation activities were suddenly much more difficult. He was left to manoeuvre his motorised wheelchair up the 300-metre incline from his home to the Goulburn Aquatic and Leisure Centre just to go for a swim.
“It was really difficult to go places, and I had to stay in the house,” he says. “I want to be an active member of the community.”
The number of wheelchair accessible taxis is declining across regional New South Wales. Cab companies in Kiama and Harden have closed their doors, and the NSW Taxi Council warns that without government intervention more could follow.
Taxi Council CEO Nick Abrahim says that even where local services remain in business, the wheelchair accessible cabs are operating at reduced hours or not at all.
“It’s a big issue for country and regional NSW in particular, we are also seeing significant issues in the metropolitan part of the regions,” Abrahim says. “We’ve got a real problem, and we need to get the skates on.”
In Armidale, members of the Armidale Taxi Co-op are paying at a loss to keep the driver of a wheelchair accessible taxi on their books.
“These are taxi businesses run by local people from the local community,” Abrahim says.
“We want to be there, during that late night, all hours of the night, whether it’s because we want to get that wheelchair passenger to a medical emergency situation or because that person just wants to enjoy a better quality of life.”
A shift in the market
Abrahim blames the growth of rideshare companies, which he says have left wheelchair taxi operators unable to maintain a financially viable operation.
“We see a lot of these other operators coming in, providing a service, picking and choosing when they want to operate,” he says. “Discriminating against people with a disability, discriminating against people who need wheelchair services, because they didn’t include that as part of their service offering.”
Rideshare company Uber rejects that characterisation, saying it has a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination. It also offers Uber Assist vehicles, which operate in nine regional cities as well as all capital cities and provide extra assistance to people with different accessibility needs.
“Uber’s community guidelines require that driver-partners comply with all relevant laws governing the transportation of riders with disabilities, including transporting service animals and assistive devices,” a spokesperson says.
“We’re committed to continuing to develop technologies that support everyone’s ability to easily move around their communities.”
Abrahim says there is “no support” for taxi drivers to provide wheelchair accessible transport, which often comes at a higher cost.
Transport for NSW ran an interest free loan scheme for wheelchair accessible taxis, but a spokesperson said it has not opened applications on that scheme since 30 June 2020. They said a new round of that scheme is now being planned, but there is “no timeframe” on when it will be opened.
The NSW government has also provided financial incentives to taxi drivers to keep offering wheelchair accessible taxis, including the taxi transport subsidy scheme which allows people who are unable to use public transport because of a severe and permanent disability to apply for a subsidy of up to 50% of a taxi fare, and the passenger service levy which adds a $1.20 levy on all taxi trips to fund an industry adjustment package for taxi licence holders.
‘We’d be stuck without them’
Stuart Mawbey drove the day shift in Goulburn for two and a half years.
“I might have 12 passengers a day, 10 were disabled or frail,” he says.
Mawbery is a member of People with a Disability Australia, a national advocacy organisation. He says a lack of accessible transport is risking the health of some passengers. Wait times are so long that bookings for an accessible taxi have to be made weeks in advance.
He once picked up an elderly woman who waited 90 minutes in extreme heat with no shade for a wheelchair taxi to be available. He admitted to loading the passenger and vehicle into the taxi sedan Ford Falcon because “it was better than leaving her in the hot sun”.
In November, paraplegic man Tony Brown waited for over two hours to hail a taxi after a medical appointment.
“My husband doesn’t need an accessible cab all the time, but there are so many that need it on a regular basis and it’s such a necessity for Goulburn, and it’s atrocious that there aren’t more available to the community,” Tony’s wife, Debbie Brown, says.
Where there is no taxi service available, passengers with special needs are reliant on community transport operators, government-subsidised operators or family and friends to access medical appointments, work and recreational activities.
Elderly couple Neta and Ray Pethers live in Binda, a village on the outskirts of Crookwell, about 65km from Goulburn. They have used Valmar Support Services, a community transport operator, since 2018 mostly for medical appointments, shopping and social outings.
The service has even driven them 200km to visit their grandson in hospital.
“Our grandson was in a horrific car accident, and he was in Canberra for three months in ICU,” Neta Pethers says. “Now our grandson has been transferred to Liverpool to the brain injury unit and they are taking us down there. They drop us right at the door.
“We would be really stuck without them, and there’s no other transport.”
