The New South Wales Government is taking steps to improve the safety of taxi drivers.

A report released today on taxi safety and security shows that fare evasion and intoxicated passengers are major concerns for cabbies.

Measures to improve safety include higher penalties for taxi fare evasion, driver door locks, emergency buttons and mandatory security cameras.

State Transport Minister John Watkins says it is also important to improve relations between taxi drivers and police.

"The most important thing is to deter crime, we found that security cameras do assist in deterring anti-social and criminal events in a taxi cab," he said.

"But when they do occur, they are also extremely useful in assisting police with their enquires."

NSW Taxi Driver Association president Geoff Coates says he has not seen the report yet, but he is happy the issues have been raised.

He says the safety of drivers must be a priority.

"It would be obvious me that one of the first improvements is to update our safety cameras in taxis that are installed some six to eight years ago," he said.