Standard taxis, including wheelchair accessible taxis.
A capped fare applies on trips from the Sydney Airport taxi ranks into the CBD, for 18 months from 3 November 2025 to 2 May 2027. Every SYD CABS driver must know these rules before they take a fare from the airport.
This page is the SYD CABS driver training material for the Sydney Airport Fixed Fare Trial. It is compulsory for new and existing drivers. If you take fares from the airport ranks and you do not know what is on this page, you will overcharge somebody, and the Point to Point Transport Commissioner is actively looking for it.
Standard taxis, including wheelchair accessible taxis.
Maxi-cabs — if there are 5 or more passengers, or the maxi-cab was requested by the hirer.
No other charge may be added. The only two exceptions are a non-cash payment surcharge and a cleaning fee. You cannot ask for extras, tolls or waiting time during the trial.
A maxi-cab carrying four passengers who did not ask for a maxi-cab is a $60 fare, not $80. The $80 applies on passenger count or on the hirer having requested the vehicle — not on the vehicle type alone.
Trips from the taxi ranks at T1 International and T2/T3 Domestic to the CBD Trial Area, which is:
The area within the City of Sydney bounded by the Harbour from Murray Street, Pyrmont Bay, in the West to the Royal Botanic Gardens in the North and East, then along Lincoln Crescent, Cowper Wharf Roadway, Sir John Young Crescent, Riley Street, William Street, College Street, Wentworth Avenue, Elizabeth Street, Chalmers Street, Devonshire Street Tunnel, Lee Street, Regent Street, Harris Street, Allen Street and Murray Street in the west, returning to the waterfront at Pyrmont Bay.
Both sides of every boundary road are inside the trial area. If you are dropping on a boundary street, it is a fixed fare either side.
Run the meter as normal. The meter must also be used to calculate the distance-based fare that applies in the unlikely event a fixed fare trip ends before reaching, or outside, the CBD Trial Area.
Start the fare calculation device as soon as the hire begins, exactly as you would on any other trip. If you engage the meter at Sydney Airport it will ask you automatically whether you are travelling to the CBD — answer it honestly.
The meter is not optional on a fixed fare trip. It is what produces the fare if the trip turns out not to end in the trial area, and it is the record that shows what actually happened if a passenger complains.
You must accept a hiring immediately when your taxi is available. A fixed fare is not a reason to refuse one, and refusing because a trip is "only" a capped fare is the fastest way to attract a complaint and a penalty.
The limited circumstances in which a hiring may be refused are unchanged by the trial:
Outside those, you take the fare.
Your official driver identity document must be clearly displayed at all times while you are working. Airport ranks are where this is checked most often.
The Point to Point Transport Commissioner monitors service provider and driver compliance with the trial through vehicle inspections, covert plain clothes operations, audits and investigations.
Covert operations mean the passenger who asks you for a few extra dollars in cash may be an authorised officer. Charge the fixed fare, every time, and there is nothing to find.
SYD CABS treats an overcharge on a fixed fare trip as a fare complaint under the Complaint Handling Policy. Where it is upheld the passenger is refunded, and the amount refunded is recoverable from you under section 7 of the Driver Service Agreement.
You must not bail a taxi to a driver who has not successfully completed all required Network training, this trial included. Every vehicle must hold a valid NSW taxi licence and be covered by compulsory third-party insurance of at least $5,000,000.
Your obligations are set out in full in the Operator Rules of Operation.
Applying to drive with us? The trial is covered in the driver application, and you will be asked to confirm you have read these rules.
Trial period 3 November 2025 to 2 May 2027. This page is reviewed before the trial ends — the capped fares do not survive it. Questions: 1300 926 117 or info@sydcabs.au.