Driver competency

As an on-demand booking service (ODBS), it is essential that you only dispatch work to authorised passenger transport drivers.

To help ensure passenger transport drivers are competent and experienced, to be eligible for a passenger transport driver (PTD) authorisation, a person must:

• have held a WA Driver’s Licence or equivalent authorisation from another jurisdiction for at least three years; and
• be at least 20 years of age.

The Department of Transport (DoT) works with WA Police and the Department of Justice to monitor convictions and charges against PTD authorisation holders, providing ongoing checks of driver suitability.

Passenger transport drivers must also demonstrate specific competencies to provide wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) taxi services.

It is important to check the authorisation status of your drivers and vehicles:

• when they first start operating for your ODBS; and 
• on a regular basis to make sure their authorisation status hasn’t changed.

As an authorised ODBS, you can access the Driver and Vehicle Industry Dashboard (DVID) to check that the drivers and vehicles you dispatch work to are authorised. 

You can then implement procedures to investigate any drivers or vehicles that are flagged for further review on the DVID.

The DVID is accessible through your ODBS’s DoTDirect account. Visit Driver and Vehicle Industry Dashboard for more information.

DoT does not mandate driver training requirements. As an ODBS, you may provide certain services to customers or ask your drivers to do specific tasks that require specialised training. 

If you do provide training to your drivers, it is important to keep records of this – see below for templates that may help you manage your driver training procedures.

If your drivers are providing wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) taxi services, they are required to demonstrate competency in the safe loading, restraint and unloading of a passenger in a wheelchair.

Visit Transporting people with disability for more information about the specific competencies required and where to find driver training support.

• Do you have procedures to ensure any new drivers and vehicles are correctly authorised?
• Are you using the DVID to regularly check the authorisation status of your drivers and vehicles?
• Do you have procedures in place to follow up any issues flagged by the DVID?