Taxi non-cash payment surcharge review 2019

The maximum surcharge will be four per cent for most non-cash payment methods. However, for Cabcharge payment instruments the maximum surcharge will be six per cent.

Our benchmarking and bottom-up cost assessment suggest that these amounts are enough for taxi payment processors to recover reasonable costs.

Most passengers will pay less when making non-cash payments as a result of this decision.

To give the industry time to implement our decision the new maximum surcharges will come into effect from 1 February 2021. Until that time the current maximum surcharge of five per cent will apply.

Originally our final decision was for the changes to come into effect from 1 July 2020. Following further investigation of the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on taxi payment processors we extended the implementation date to 1 October 2020.

It has become apparent to the commission that even more time is required to update payment terminals as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, in particular, the stage four lockdown restrictions. Our review indicates that providing non-cash payment transaction industry until 1 February 2021 to update their payment terminals would best meet the commission's legislative objectives and requirements.