Fees to register as a driver of a commercial passenger vehicle to jump more than 90 per cent

THE taxi industry has voiced concerns over the NT Government’s decision to increase application fees by more than 90 per cent

The taxi industry has voiced concerns over the government’s decision to increase one of a handful of application fees by more than 90 per cent

THE taxi industry has voiced concerns over the government’s decision to increase one of a handful of application fees by more than 90 per cent.

The H endorsement fee, which is paid by anyone driving a commercial passenger vehicle, is set to soar from $7 to $100.

The fee is a one-off and covers administration costs within the department and covering transport subsidy schemes.

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Taxi driver George Papantonakis, speaking on ABC Radio, said the soaring fee would hit cabbies hard when they already had to pay thousands in annual fees.

“They (Uber) pay $300 a year for their commercial vehicle licence. We pay $5000. Where is the fairness in that,” he said.

“We’ve got the $5000 for a licence, and then we pay the H endorsement, then $1700 for registration and $4000 for commercial insurance which Uber doesn’t have.”

Transport, Safety and Services executive director Simon Saunders said the decision to increase the fee came about as a result of the Government’s Root and Branch Review.

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“The idea of the levy was to make sure that we were collecting a similar amount of money to cover the regulatory costs, which also include enforcement and compliance and the costs associated with the transport subsidy scheme as well,” he said.

He said the current fee did not cover any of the transport schemes and work associated with processing a commercial transport application.

“There’s a significant cost associated with what we have to do within the department,” he said.

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“That also covers the subsidies for the taxi subsidy scheme — the transport subsidy scheme — which provides a subsidy to disabled members of the community to take public transport and travel in taxis and commercial vehicles.”