{"id":944912,"date":"2026-10-29T07:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944912\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T07:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:54:17","slug":"authorities-crack-down-on-illegal-taxi-drivers-at-perth-airport-burswood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944912\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities crack down on illegal taxi drivers at Perth Airport, Burswood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Australia’s transport minister says compliance checks will be ramped up in an attempt to weed out “bad apples” operating taxis in Perth, with a focus on the airport and the Crown Casino complex.<\/p>\n

Rita Saffioti said “secret shopper” style checks and compliance blitzes had already taken place four times this year, and at least one driver was handed a fine.<\/p>\n

Investigations were carried out in collaboration with WA Police and Australian Federal Police outside Perth Airport and the Burswood entertainment precinct \u2014 home to Perth Stadium and Crown Casino.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Perth Airport is one of the areas authorities are targeting in the compliance blitz. (ABC News: James Carmody)<\/p>\n

Form of ‘wage theft’<\/p>\n

Perth taxi driver Jonathan Masih told the ABC illegal operators had found workarounds for compliance checks.<\/p>\n

“A lot of drivers disappeared then because they got a network, they just ring each other up and then they don’t show up,” he told 102.5 ABC Perth.<\/p>\n

Mr Masih said illegal taxi drivers taking fares from outside major hubs was a form of wage theft.<\/p>\n

\"white<\/p>\n

Protecting the reputation of legitimate taxi drivers is one of the minister’s motivations. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

“Some of them are posing as a taxi, the other ones they’ve got private cars and they’re just asking the customer to jump in,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re just doing the work in front of the airport.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been telling the airport authorities, federal police, Department of Transport, minister’s office, but nothing changes.”<\/p>\n

Perth Airport chief warns of upheaval<\/a><\/p>\n

Perth Airport’s chief executive has warned passengers the facility is set for major upheaval as it moves to consolidate its four terminals.<\/p>\n

Mr Masih said he was worried about how illegal taxis would impact unknowing passengers.<\/p>\n

“It’s not really good for the customers, if there’s an accident or anything bad happens there’s going to be legal issues,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Saffioti said ensuring compliance was as much about protecting the reputation of legitimate drivers as it was stamping out “bad apples” in the industry.<\/p>\n

“We want to make sure \u2026 all those hard-working taxi drivers continue to get clientele and aren’t impacted by those that are abusing the system.”<\/p>\n

Data tracking leads to conviction<\/p>\n

Ms Saffioti said investigations found evidence of “abuse”.<\/p>\n

\"Rita<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti says there need to be consequences for people exploiting the system. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

“Now we’re able to go through and check data and check charges made compared to distance travelled and we’ve found some people are abusing that system,” Ms Saffioti said.<\/p>\n

“As a result, there’s already been one fine imposed by the court and a number of other investigations are underway.”<\/p>\n

Ms Saffioti said there were a number of checks being made including car roadworthiness, driver authorisation and company authorisation.<\/p>\n

“We need to make sure that those who are exploiting the system or not obeying the rules are dealt with,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Australia’s transport minister says compliance checks will be ramped up in an attempt to weed out “bad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,512137,172127,512141,512139,512136,302049,512138,512140,86,45],"class_list":["post-944912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-illegal-taxis","tag-perth-airport","tag-perth-airport-jetstar","tag-perth-airport-qantas","tag-perth-airport-taxi","tag-perth-airport-terminal-1","tag-perth-airport-terminal-2","tag-perth-airport-virgin","tag-perth-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}