Taxi and booked hire services

Taxi and booked hire services include services provided by taxis and rideshare vehicles. They provide accessible transport options and localised access for people with disability.

They connect people to and from passenger transport services and complement traditional passenger transport services, particularly in areas with limited access to buses and trains.

We are collaborating with industry to address taxi and rideshare availability, reliability and bookings systems.

What you have told us

“If I get the regular drivers of the taxis, they are always helpful.”

“Taxi and rideshare services need to be improved as they are currently unreliable or non-existent for many wheelchair users.”

Taxis and booked hire services are an important service for people with disability who don't have the option to drive independently or can't access other passenger transport services. It’s important to ensure booking systems are accessible and wheelchair accessible taxis are available.

Services and drivers need to be reliable so customers can depend on them to get to and from important events and activities, including medical appointments.

The Taxi Subsidy Scheme supports many people with disability to access taxis. People have told us they would like the subsidy to include rideshare services, so they have more options where taxi availability is limited.

What we are doing

Listening to people with disability

We are collaborating with, and actively seeking feedback from, people with disability to improve accessible taxi services.

Accessible Taxi Services Working Group

We engage with people across the community and industry to understand the issues for people with disability accessing booked services, and to find ways to address them.

The Accessible Taxi Services Working Group includes representatives from the taxi industry, and disability advocates who regularly meet to address ongoing accessibility challenges within the industry and to find solutions.

Taxi and booked hire transport accessibility surveys

The personalised transport accessibility surveys allow us to:

• identify and monitor issues faced by customers with disability
• track the impacts of actions implemented to address concerns about taxi and booked hire services.

The surveys help inform future policies and regulations about accessible taxi and booked hire services.

Best practice guide for booking systems

Together with disability sector representatives, we are co-designing a best practice guide to design more accessible booking and communication systems. This will ensure people with disability aren’t disadvantaged when booking and using taxi and booked hire services.

Taxi and booked hire complaints process

We are reviewing the taxi and booked hire complaints process so complaints are responded to quickly and customers are informed of the outcome.

We are updating the Queensland Government taxi service standards page to make it easier and simpler for customers to understand taxi charging and maximum fares.

Learn more about the taxi service standards on the Queensland Government website.

Improving wheelchair accessible taxis reliability

We continue to look at ways to improve the service reliability and availability of wheelchair accessible taxis, particularly in rural and regional areas.

Wheelchair accessible taxi lift payment

Taxi drivers receive a $25 lift payment for each wheelchair accessible taxi trip for a Taxi Subsidy Scheme member who sits in their wheelchair during travel. This lift payment gives drivers of wheelchair accessible taxis an incentive to prioritise bookings for Taxi Subsidy Scheme members, and members a reliable transport option.

We have doubled the lift payment for wheelchair accessible taxi drivers on Christmas Day, to make sure there are enough services available to meet demand. On Christmas Day 2024, 773 wheelchair accessible taxi drivers worked; almost triple the amount in 2023. It was the first year there were no complaints about wheelchair accessible taxi services on Christmas Day received by taxi companies, disability groups, or us.

As a result of the initiative’s success, lift payments are permanently doubled on Christmas Day each year.

Learn more about the wheelchair accessible taxi lift fee.

Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Grant Scheme

The Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Grant Scheme helps the taxi industry replace aging wheelchair accessible taxis. This supports the industry to provide vital accessible transport options in a sustainable and modern taxi fleet.

The scheme also offers funding to replace standard taxis with new wheelchair accessible taxis, helping to grow the accessible fleet.

Since 2019, we have approved 462 applications totalling $21 million in funding, with 393 vehicles already on the road. This means almost 70 per cent of Queensland's wheelchair accessible taxi fleet has been upgraded, or approved for upgrade, under the scheme.

Due to its success, we are investing another $6.3 million to reestablish the scheme in 2025-26.

Learn more about the Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Grant Scheme.

Wheelchair accessible taxi safety checklists

Wheelchair accessible taxi safety checklists identify the key steps to safely lift and secure a passenger in a wheelchair. The checklists will be printed as stickers and placed inside every wheelchair accessible taxi across the state.

This will help remind drivers how to keep passengers safe, and provide more confidence to passengers using a wheelchair.

Addressing affordability

We are looking at ways to make taxis and booked services more affordable.

Taxi Subsidy Scheme

Our Taxi Subsidy Scheme provides affordable taxi travel for residents of Queensland who have been assessed by a health professional as having a permanent or temporary disability against specific eligibility criteria.

Under the scheme, we fund half of the taxi fare up to a maximum of $30 per trip.

Learn more about the Taxi Subsidy Scheme on the Queensland Government website.

Expanding the Taxi Subsidy Scheme

We are reviewing Queensland's accessible taxi and booked hire framework to identify the most effective regulatory and funding settings that meet the needs of people with disability. This includes delivering on our commitment to consider whether the Taxi Subsidy Scheme should be expanded to include other transport providers.

Addressing service refusal

According to Australian and Queensland legislation it is illegal for:

• taxi and booked hire drivers to refuse service to a person with an assistance animal
• taxi drivers to refuse service to a person travelling in a wheelchair or anyone who is a Taxi Subsidy Scheme member.

While most drivers do the right thing, some don’t. To address this, we are actively working with the taxi industry to ensure all drivers understand and comply with the law.

Campaigns and education

We are working with industry to help educate drivers about their obligations when delivering services to people with disability.

For example, we have co-designed educational videos to raise awareness about anti-discrimination laws and promote empathy towards people with disability.

Other materials highlight:

• the importance of accepting assistance animals, and people in wheelchairs
• the impact of discrimination
• how well assistance animals behave
• examples of positive and negative experiences.

Learn more about assistance animals in personalised transport on the Queensland Government website.

Travelling with assistance animals

In collaboration with the Accessible Taxi Services Working Group, we published online resources to help personalised transport drivers understand their obligations around assistance animals.

These resources include guidance on identifying assistance animals and information for passengers on how to lodge complaints if they are refused a service. We regularly review and update this content to ensure it is relevant and effective.

Through a monthly personalised transport newsletter, we provide regular reminders to reinforce drivers’ understanding of their legal obligation to accept passengers with assistance animals.

In 2024, we launched an ongoing social media campaign promoting the rights of people with assistance animals. A focus of the campaign is to promote the message that passengers with an assistance animal have the same rights to access personalised transport services as all Queenslanders.

Find more information about travelling with a guide, hearing or assistance dog on the Queensland Government website.

What we will do next

1. Undertake taxi and booked hire customer accessibility surveys to monitor user experiences.
2. Complete co-design of a best practice guide for taxi and booked hire transport booking systems.
3. Continue to deliver the wheelchair accessible taxi lift payment, including a double payment on Christmas Day.
4. Deliver the Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Grant Scheme in 2025-26 and consider further extensions to the scheme.
5. Roll out safety checklists to be affixed in wheelchair accessible taxis.
6. Continue delivery of the Taxi Subsidy Scheme.
7. Consider expansion of the Taxi Subsidy Scheme to rideshare service providers.
8. Provide a suite of resources to promote taxi driver responsibilities when assisting people with disability – such as educational materials, website updates, newsletters and social media campaigns. This will include targeted campaigns for people with assistance animals.