
Uber 'came to our shores, illegally, like pirates', class action plaintiff says - quickthrower2
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-03/uber-to-face-class-action-against-taxi-and-private-drivers/11073640
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marcus_holmes
I would feel sorry for the taxi drivers, but I can't bring myself to. I lived
in Perth (Western Australia, one of the states reported to be involved in this
suit) for almost 10 years without a car, and the taxi industry routinely
failed to deliver even a basic service. I can't count the number of times I've
had a booked cab fail to turn up, or a driver refuse my fare because it was
"too far" or "not far enough". Not to mention the eye-watering costs.

I recently (Feb) used Uber in Perth, and had to wait a maximum of 10 minutes
to get a lift, even from the suburbs. Drivers have been unfailingly polite and
usually interesting to talk with. It's provided a needed source of
supplementary income to people struggling with the mining downturn.

I'm not a fan of Uber's old culture (I have no idea if they're changed since
the management shakeup). I'm not a fan of startups just ignoring regulation.
But I can't argue about these results.

I hope the taxi industry changes and adapts to Uber, rather than using
legislation to force Uber to become more like the taxi industry.

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ajurna
we had similar problems in ireland with taxi's but this was solved not by uber
but by deregulation.

Under this we got thousands more taxi's who are all registered and have public
liability insurance.

Under Irish law you have to have a taxi or hackny license in order to
transport anyone so it is illegal for uber to operate here, but with the
selection of other apps like lync with work quite well in our regulatory
enviroment this has been a great result!

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mmerlin
The Taxi industry in Australia is anachronistic, protectionist, inefficient
and expensive.

Taxi Licences were artificially limited and their resale value rocketed over
time from 10's of thousands to many 100's of thousands. That trend has well
and truly reversed with Uber, GoCatch, Didi etc the preferred choice for
consumers, due to cleanliness, timeliness, reliability of service, information
empowerment, etc

Taxi Licensees face enormous regulatory inefficiencies where they are only
allowed to start a journey in their demarcated district.

If they end a journey outside of their licenced region, they cannot pick up a
new passenger (if they flaunt this rule they can be slapped with $1000
penalty)

This results in drivers who have each travelled outside their licensed region,
passing each other on the return journey with empty cabs driving back to the
area where they are allowed to pick up a new passenger.

Taxi fares from a consumer standpoint are approximately 30% extra
(anecdotally) and the service and quality of the cars varies wildly from great
to terrible.

