A festering brawl is developing between ridesharing service, Uber-X, and Australia’s taxi industry.
Following rapid growth in the number of Uber-X drivers, whose ranks have swelled to 15,000 and are on track to surpass 20,000 by the end of the year (versus around 21,000 cabs on the roads and 68,000 cab drivers at the end of 2014), the New South Wales Taxi Council has funded a series of attack ads against Uber in the hope of dissuading the public from using its service. From ABC Radio:
ROY WAKELIN-KING [NSW Taxi Council CEO]: What we’re doing today and in the coming months is we’ll be highlighting to the general public the risks of illegal taxi transport, of illegal ride sharing, and the risks that these pose to the public.
And what we mean by that is that in those circumstances where people catch private vehicles driven by private drivers that there are no safety or security systems that are important in providing taxi services.
ANGELA LAVOIPIERRE: The content of the ads is fairly dark. You’ve got women in seemingly vulnerable situations. Is that a move to exploit women’s fears about their safety?
ROY WAKELIN-KING: No, what we’re doing here is we’re highlighting that there are a series of risks.
We’ve said quite clearly that it is no safer than hitchhiking because what you can find is yourself in a vehicle where the individual who is driving that vehicle has had little or no background checks.
And it’s important that people think twice before they use these services and expose themselves to the sort of dangers that can exist.
ANGELA LAVOIPIERRE: To say that it’s no safer than hitchhiking ignores the fact that there’s an app tracking you and you have the driver’s details and all that’s recorded online, doesn’t it?
ROY WAKELIN-KING: Well one of the things that is emerging in this whole debate is the fact that the whole app based system is based on a smart phone…
ROY WAKELIN-KING: [Uber] is not employment; this is a highly casualised work force which is operating at the whim of an international company. And I think we should be rightly concerned about where this debate on industrial relations is going with organisations such as Uber and Airbnb.
Quite frankly, the Taxi Councils arguments about safety are dubious. In addition to tracking one’s travels via their smartphone, Uber-X has a built-in feedback system that allows users to read reviews about their driver before they book, as well as provide feedback on their experience afterwards, which obviously incentivises drivers to provide good service. This system compare favourably to taxis, where there is no feedback mechanism and it is pot luck who your driver is.
The Taxi Council’s argument about working conditions is also spurious. Very few taxi plate owners actually drive their own vehicles. Instead, they tend to employ new migrants, paying them slave wages to do the job. As almost any taxi user will attest, these driver’s knowledge of local roads and sometimes the English language is limited, and their hygiene and driving skills are sometimes questionable.
At least Uber-X provides drivers with the opportunity to earn reasonable incomes without paying exorbitant rents to monopoly taxi plate owners. Some of these benefits are also passed on to consumers, who typically enjoy lower fares than traditional taxis, and generally a better, cleaner, service.
The benefits of ridesharing services, like Uber-X, have also been acknowledged by the Queensland State Government, which has noted the benefits to competition and consumers from ridesharing:
Documents obtained by 7.30 reveal the Queensland Premier’s own policy advisors believe ride sharing is good for the economy.
QLD PREMIER POLICY ADVISORS (male voiceover): “Despite operating outside of the regulatory framework, Uber has increased competition in the Queensland taxi market … providing customers with the ability to choose an alternative to regular taxis”.
DAVID LEWIS: The economic policy group’s report, released to Uber under a Right to Information request, is highly critical of current transport regulations.
QLD PREMIER POLICY ADVISORS (male voiceover): “Restricting the supply of taxis limits competition and results in higher fares for most users than would be the case in a more open market. This benefits license holders at the expense of consumers … Brisbane consumers were worse off by $40 million a year”…
QLD PREMIER POLICY ADVISORS (male voiceover): “The safety risks associated with using Uber are potentially minimal.”
In a similar vein, a recent US study has credited Uber with a decline in Californian drunk driving deaths.
All that should be required to operate a ridesharing service is meeting basic performance standards, a valid driver’s licence, and a registered and road worthy car. People should be free to choose their transport options, not have them dictated to by the government for the purposes of protecting the Taxi cartel’s ‘licencing’ monopoly, which gleans an economic rent from purposely-limiting the number granted.
With UberX fighting a court challenge in Victoria, a ban in Queensland, coming under review in New South Wales, all we can hope for is that Uber and the state governments can come to a sensible agreement about ride sharing’s worthwhile place in the transport landscape.
