Authorised Officers
Authorised Officers (ticket inspectors) are staff employed by public transport operators (train, tram and buses) to ensure that people comply with ticketing and behavioural requirements while travelling on or using public transport services and facilities. To exercise their powers, they must be first authorised by the Director of Public Transport.
Currently, there are around 545 Authorised Officers employed on the public transport network, including 30 officers who were hired to support the late night train services on Friday and Saturday nights.
Information on this page
Code of conduct
The code of conduct is a set of uniform protocols and procedures to assist Authorised Officers to professionally and effectively carry out their duties. In particular, it is designed to:
- require high-standard customer service to public transport passengers including travel advice and assistance
- improve safety and security on public transport
- provide a deterrent to fare evasion, vandalism and anti-social behaviour
- ensure that the highest degree of integrity and professionalism is maintained at all times.
The protocols in the code deal with the following issues:
- general conduct and code of ethics
- customer responsibility
- dealing with special groups
- young people
- senior people
- people with disabilities
- people of different ethnic backgrounds
- operational procedures
- production of authority
- working in teams
- boarding and alighting vehicles
- use of official notebooks
- confirmation of name and address
- ticketing
- equipment faults
- concession fare eligibility
- confiscation of tickets
- directions to purchase or validate
- arrest
- arrest criteria
- arrest procedures
- pursuit of offenders
- interaction with Victoria Police
- serious offences.
For more information refer to
Code of Conduct for Authorised Officers.
The development of the Code of Conduct was part of the Government's response to the
Review of Arrangements for Authorised Officers Employed by Public Transport Operators ('the McQuillen Report') released in October 2003. See
Public transport publications for a copy of the report.
Enforcement accreditation
The State Government provides enforcement accreditation for public transport companies that engage their own Authorised Officers. Accreditation sets out the requirements expected of companies for the training and management of their Authorised Officers. This includes:
- education and training relating to the use of enforcement powers and their behaviour towards public transport users particularly children and other vulnerable people
- the supervision of the Authorised Officers
- the reporting of any serious incidents involving Authorised Officers to the Director of Public Transport within 14 days of the incident occurring.
The State Government monitors each accredited company's management systems through an auditing process.
Training improvements
Authorised Officers must complete a one week Department of Transport Law and Procedure Course and several weeks of operator training, made up of classroom and field training.
As of 1 July 2007, Authorised Officer training has been expanded to better address the following areas:
- communication skills
- interpersonal skills
- service concepts
- role and powers of Authorised Officers
- risk management
- decision making
- conflict management
- Customer Service Charters
- the Transport Act 1983 and Regulations
- Information Privacy Act and Principles
- practical enforcement including arrest and detention
- court procedures
- interaction with young people, older people, people with disabilities, people who do not speak English as a first language, visitors to Melbourne and tourists
- occupational health and safety
- compliance with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006
Renewal training has also been introduced for officers already working in the field to enable them to qualify for Certificate III in Public Transport and Customer Service Compliance.
The revised authorised officer training course is nationally accredited and the department has engaged the Australian Institute of Management to develop the course material incorporating the above areas of learning. Successful completion of training is a mandatory condition for staff to retain authorisation.
Transport operators are also required to ensure that each team of Authorised Officers deployed has a supervising team leader accountable for performance.
A revised system of performance assessments has been introduced to help individual managers identify training needs of individual officers.