As an American resident of NSW, I had no idea Uber wasn't legal, I just knew they couldn't pick up from the airport. I've been using the service regularly since moving here. Perhaps this helps explain why locals I've met seem to favor taxis.
Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
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Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#12Why aren't we addressing the safety aspects of Uber rather than making it legal? Can we not ensure that the cars are professionally insured, professionally driven and kept up to standard and safe to be in? That should be our number one priority before allowing the company to continue operating. Some random examples: http://www.cnet.com/au/news/sydney-ridesharing-driver-charge... http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-o…
Sorry, but these examples are pretty laughable. Do you live in Sydney, or even Australia?
As a Uber customer in Australia, safety is not something I need to worry about getting into an Uber. I can see the photo of the driver before I get in, I can see his rating, and I know the entire ride including GPS location etc. will be stored in the cloud.
Your examples only prove my point.
That's a lot more accountability that can be had with taxis.
Now taxis on the other hand....I have had some great drivers.
However, more often many of them are rude, and quite honestly, some of the most a*sehole drivers on the road I've seen. Even as a customer in a hurry, I don't want him or her driving like it's Grand Prix Turismo, or being a jerk to other people on the road.
With Uber, I just rate him or her 1 star, and say aggressive driving. I have only had to do that once ever with Uber (and I have taken around 150 Uber trips, across four countries) - and within minutes, somebody from Uber emailed me back, to follow up with the complaint.
Have you ever tried complaining about a Sydney taxi driver? Or heck, talking to their lost property department? Good luck with that, mate....
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#13This is awesome news!
As a NSW taxpayer, I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry, or tacking on $1 per Uber ride to pay them out but I suppose the taxi lobby is strong, and the government needs to pander to them.
I'm curious what licensing is required, will be good to hear more details.
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#14As an American resident of NSW, I had no idea Uber wasn't legal, I just knew they couldn't pick up from the airport. I've been using the service regularly since moving here. Perhaps this helps explain why locals I've met seem to favor taxis.
I would have to differ on this. I only ride uber in Sydney since I got back from o/s in Jan-2015. I would say, once the locals have ridden uber (i have introduced family and friends on the service), no one that i know prefers taxis.
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#15This is awesome news! As a NSW taxpayer, I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry, or tacking on $1 per Uber ride to pay them out but I suppose the taxi lobby is strong, and the government needs to pander to them. I'm curious what licensing is required, will be good to hear more details.
The government has sold taxi licensed/medallions for the right to provide this service. If this were real estate eminent domain would apply and the owners would be compensated. It seems consistent to compensate existing license holders.
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#16This is awesome news! As a NSW taxpayer, I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry, or tacking on $1 per Uber ride to pay them out but I suppose the taxi lobby is strong, and the government needs to pander to them. I'm curious what licensing is required, will be good to hear more details.
The government has sold taxi licensed/medallions for the right to provide this service. If this were real estate eminent domain would apply and the owners would be compensated. It seems consistent to compensate existing license holders.
Well, not really.
It's not like the government took away the rights of taxi drivers to drive people around. It's just that there's a new entrant now, and they actually need to compete.
In fact, taxi medallion prices went down post-2011 (before Uber) because the government released more, because consumers (i.e. everyday people) complained about crazy prices. You don't see the government compensating people there.
It would be like if the government handed out licenses to build 1000 apartments.
Then, they realised, jeez, house prices are crazy, we better issue more licenses. Or we better re-zone to allow super-high density apartments, or allow people to sub-let apartment (cause in this make-believe world, that wasn't possibly before).
Would the original 1000 apartment owners be clamoring for government handouts?
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#17This is awesome news! As a NSW taxpayer, I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry, or tacking on $1 per Uber ride to pay them out but I suppose the taxi lobby is strong, and the government needs to pander to them. I'm curious what licensing is required, will be good to hear more details.
> I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry
This is a tradition in Australia. When our law creates property rights that shouldn't exist, and people spend money in good faith to buy those rights, we compensate them when we fix the law and their property stops existing. We did the same thing with water licences: it wasn't the farmers' fault that the legislatures stuffed up and sold them water that didn't exist.
Of course, a lot of the money paid for taxi licences was speculation. When people speculate on bad laws staying in force, then lobby the government to ensure that they do, those people deserve to lose their money. Twenty thousand dollars per licence sounds like a good balance to me.
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#18This is awesome news! As a NSW taxpayer, I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry, or tacking on $1 per Uber ride to pay them out but I suppose the taxi lobby is strong, and the government needs to pander to them. I'm curious what licensing is required, will be good to hear more details.
The article doesn't go into great detail on funding, but it does say "Both taxi and Uber drivers will also have to pay the government a $1 levy per trip for a maximum of five years to fund the compensation package.".
Presumably, the $1 per trip levy is intended to fund the compensation, rather than it coming from general revenue / other tax sources. If that's the case, I think it's great that taxi / uber users will be funding this (incorporated into fares by their drivers), since they are the beneficiaries of the increased supply and competition in the market space.
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
The government has sold taxi licensed/medallions for the right to provide this service. If this were real estate eminent domain would apply and the owners would be compensated. It seems consistent to compensate existing license holders.
Well, not really. It's not like the government took away the rights of taxi drivers to drive people around. It's just that there's a new entrant now, and they actually need to compete. In fact, taxi medallion prices went down post-2011 (before Uber) because the government released more, because consumers (i.e. everyday people) complained about crazy prices. You don't see the government compensating people there. It w…
Yeah, but the new entrant decided to not play by the same rules as everyone else. They just started breaking the law, and they just get to win for some reason. If you're just going to let that happen, you should compensate the people that played by the rules but got screwed over by your failure to enforce those rules.
Re: Uber becomes legal in NSW, Australia – taxi owners to be compensated
#20This is awesome news! As a NSW taxpayer, I'm not too sure I agree with the government doling out our taxpayers to compensate a dying/legacy industry, or tacking on $1 per Uber ride to pay them out but I suppose the taxi lobby is strong, and the government needs to pander to them. I'm curious what licensing is required, will be good to hear more details.
The article doesn't go into great detail on funding, but it does say "Both taxi and Uber drivers will also have to pay the government a $1 levy per trip for a maximum of five years to fund the compensation package.". Presumably, the $1 per trip levy is intended to fund the compensation, rather than it coming from general revenue / other tax sources. If that's the case, I think it's great that taxi / uber users will b…
The problem is the compensation package shouldn't exist at all. We shouldn't be paying for failing investments.