Sanai v Roads and Maritime Services [2014] NSWCATOD 39

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Sanai v Roads and Maritime Services [2014] NSWCATOD 39 Hearing dates: 6 November and 11 December 2013 Decision date: 29 April 2014 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: S Frost, Senior Member Decision: Cancellation decision set aside; substitute a decision to suspend the applicant's taxi driver authority until he has satisfactorily completed courses in customer care and the legal obligations of a taxi driver Catchwords: Passenger transport - taxi driver - whether driver authority should be cancelled - analysis of complaint history - extent to which complaints upheld Legislation Cited: Passenger Transport Act 1990 Passenger Transport Regulation 2007 Cases Cited: Saddick v Director General, Department of Transport [2002] NSWADT 88; Taylor v Director General, Department of Transport (GD) [2001] NSWADTAP 29 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Eienddin Sanai (Applicant) Roads and Maritime Services (Respondent) Representation: Counsel C Bolger (Applicant) Lyons & Lyons (Applicant) A Wozniak (Respondent) File Number(s): 133179

reasons for decision 1The Applicant, Eienddin Sanai, has been driving taxis since about 1990. In that time he has been the subject of 61 complaints made by passengers or other road users about his conduct as a taxi driver. 2Some of the complaints allege incivility or rudeness on the part of Mr Sanai towards his passengers. Some of them allege overcharging of fares, either by failing to take the most direct route to the passenger's destination, or by charging the wrong tariff, or by obscuring the display on the meter, making it impossible for the passenger to know what the proper fare should be. 3At different times over the years the regulator (which has changed its name a number of times but which, for convenience, I will refer to as Roads and Maritime Services, or RMS) has sent Mr Sanai for retraining, placed him on probation, and imposed conditions on his taxi driver authority. 4Most recently, in May 2012, RMS directed Mr Sanai to participate in a Taxi Remedial Training Course. He attended that course in July 2012 and was subsequently issued with a written "caution" by RMS, warning him that "any further complaints, arrests, convictions, proven offences and traffic history may result in the suspension or cancellation of your Driver Authority". 5Six further passenger complaints were made in the six-week period from 1 February to 15 March 2013. There was also a complaint made in January 2013 by a heavy vehicle driver, who complained about a dangerous right-hand turn made by the taxi that Mr Sanai was driving at the time, almost resulting in a collision. 6By May 2013 RMS had clearly had enough. Mr Sanai's driver authority (AF2806) was cancelled on 15 May 2013, with immediate effect. 7Mr Sanai applied to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) for review of RMS's cancellation decision. He was granted a stay of the decision, under s 60 of the then Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997, on 11 June 2013. As a result Mr Sanai has been allowed to continue driving taxis pending determination of his review application. 8His application for review was listed for hearing in the General Division of the ADT on 22 August 2013 but the hearing did not proceed on that day because of the late filing of materials by RMS. The application was heard on 6 November and 11 December 2013, at which time I reserved my decision. The ADT was merged into the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of New South Wales (NCAT) on 1 January 2014 and as a result I am now authorised and required to determine the matter as a member of NCAT: clause 7(2) in Schedule 1 to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NCAT Act). Matters, such as this one, concerning the administrative review of decisions made under the Passenger Transport Act 1990 (the PT Act), which were formerly dealt with in the General Division of the ADT are dealt with in the Occupational Division of NCAT: s 52 of the PT Act and clause 4(1) in Schedule 5 to the NCAT Act.