IT’S raised the ire of taxi companies along Australia’s eastern seaboard and with fears it could soon set its sights on regional areas, one local cab company has met the challenge head on.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tamworth Taxis is in the midst of wholesale changes to the way its fleet will be dispatched in the future, partly driven by the rise of the likes of UberX, a ride-sharing service that uses an app for bookings and promises cheaper fares, but which the industry argues is unregulated and illegal.
San Francisco-based technology company Uber now operates its service in 200 cities around the world, including Australia’s east coast capitals, and now Perth.
Just this week, the company announced the service was now available in the Western Australian capital, prompting a warning from the state’s transport minister that it would be operating illegally.
Greg Rowland, a director with Tamworth Taxis, which operates 26 cars across the city, described the likes of UberX as one of the major challenges for the industry.
He said the company believed regional centres were being sought out for the app-based service, prompting Tamworth Taxis to begin the development of its own app and overhaul the way customer calls are dealt with.
“These are illegal operators of these taxi apps and it’s completely unregulated,” Mr Rowland said.
“It’s an uncontrolled market and the security side is of great concern to us.”
NSW Taxi Council chief executive Roy Wakelin-King said recently anyone who thought “(Uber) care(s) about the passenger or the driver is having a lend of themselves”.
“We all know this and the challenge we all face is that we’ve got to convince decision-makers, the politicians and regulators, to recognise the obvious exposures that exist there,” he said.
In Sydney, the Department of Transport has fined some of the company’s drivers, who use private vehicles for pick-ups, arguing they’re breaking the law.
The taxi industry says that unlike their operators, Uber pays no licence fees to government and has none of the security features required in taxis.
Mr Rowland said from late October customer calls would be handled by a call centre in Hobart, which would allow for the implementation of the customer app, with new equipment to be installed in its vehicles within the fortnight.
