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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 928 asked in the Legislative Council on 16 September 2020 by Hon Peter Collier

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — ON-DEMAND TRANSPORT — SURGE PRICING

928. Hon PETER COLLIER to the minister representing the Minister for Transport:

I refer to COVID-19 relief for the passenger transport industry and that surge pricing is not allowed when a state of emergency has been declared.

(1) What is the difference between surge pricing and dynamic pricing with reference to on-demand transport providers?

(2) Why has the state government given Uber special permission to implement dynamic pricing, given the state is still in a declared state of emergency?

(3) Have any other transport providers been granted similar special permissions; and, if so, which companies?

(4) Has any on-demand transport provider breached the current surge pricing and/or dynamic pricing restrictions; and, if so, which provider or providers and how many times?

Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for some notice of the question.

(1) Surge pricing is defined in the Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020. Regulation 129 of the Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020 prohibits the use of surge pricing for the provision of a passenger transport service in an emergency area as defined in the Emergency Management Act 2005. The purpose of this regulation is to ensure that people who are directed to leave, or are voluntarily leaving, an affected area in a serious emergency situation, often in large numbers, are not financially penalised by transport operators demanding high fares. The current COVID-19 state of emergency is different from what was contemplated during the drafting of the regulations in that there are not currently large volumes of people trying to evacuate an area.

(2)–(4) No, the state government has not granted special permission to any transport provider. However, there is now a level of competition in the on-demand transport industry and consumers are encouraged to take advantage of this increased competition.