Not all uber drivers even pay the minimal increase for proper "ride share" CTP, this violates the acts in most states and means NO CTP for passenger.
Taxis are in a SEPARATE pool and dont contribute to increasing normal vehicle pool costs. Normal pool CTP about $500, Taxi pool CTP about $6000.
20 -30% of every uber fare is shipped off to the Netherlands TAX FREE...what happened to Buy Australian?
Many uber and Taxi drivers pay no 10% GST as they should either.
Uber and Taxis share MANY of the same drivers so they both have the same driver standard problems...both have good and bad.
You have to do something pretty bad to be deactivated by Uber...taxis are not that much better...but believe it or not, there is not an oversupply of drivers for either system...especially the clean cut, english speaking, knowing where they are going with good personal and vehicle hygiene kind that the public demand nowadays.
Ubers star rating system does as much good as phoning in a complaint to a Taxi company ie nothing! Unless it in writing and on camera/facebook/TV nothing will happen.
GPS does not know where you are going...only where you have been, this is why many jobs are behind you...this is why both drivers say "It's too far away, someone else can do it"
This is why you see 5 cars right near you but none pick you up...they WERE there, they are not anymore...there is a delay...this is not a TV show with "live" satellite feeds from the Pentagon.
Uber GPS tracks a phone which can be turned off...Taxis track the vehicle with multiple systems hardwired into the vehicle.
Taxis have govt mandated security cameras, only police can access footage.
Many uber drivers use personal dash cams, front and rear facing, no laws on what they do with footage...general privacy act may apply but will be too late when your drunken antics are all over Facebook and the news because you gave the driver 1 Star.
Uber surge price, multiple times the fare during busy times...thats unfair, do restaurants charge more at peak eating hours?
The public know this now and they will uber IN to an event, and TRY to Taxi home, I say TRY because many of the Taxis are now parked as the drivers switch to Uber after 10pm looking for the surges.
Everybody loses...uber drivers, taxi operators and the public. Taxi drivers were never making fortunes, but they didnt have to provide a vehicle, uber drivers definitely wont make money, they just trade devaluing their car for money now.
Every Uber driver problem has already been experienced by Taxi drivers...every Uber passenger problem has been experienced by Taxi passengers.
This is why we had so many laws for Public Transport in the first place!
I cant understand the logic...the only ones benefitting from this mess are Uber and lawyers.
If an Uber driver isn't paying the higher insurance, he won't be able to upload the correct docs and Uber won't let him on the platform until that's fixed.
Uber is benefiting from the same tax loopholes that every other multinational is. This is a global problem, not Uber or Australia alone.
Avoiding GST only works so far. Uber pays money into Australian bank accounts, and the ATO can spot those deposits. Not all Uber payments are subject to GST - and yes, Uber doesn't pay it - but the ATO will have a rough idea how much the driver should be paying and that's going to catch up with them.
Greedy and unsafe taxi drivers have an incentive to drive - they'll earn more money by taking shortcuts (and the"long way"), and there's rarely any comeback. Uber drivers who bend the rules get rated down and kicked off.
Drivers who are smart and well-spoken, look after their passengers etc. can generally get better-paying jobs. I happen to like Uberdrivering, but money isn't my main focus.
Uber's rating system works well. Drop below 4.6 stars out of five, you get kicked off the platform. Passengers get an email showing times and places of start and end, and the route followed. Drivers who don't take an efficient route are easily identified.
GPS knows where the driver is - it is getting the information off the driver's phone - and will assign the closest car to a job. Yes, sometimes this is the wrong way down a one way street, or the driver is in the wrong lane to make a turn, but generally it works well. I've often been a few metres from somebody making a request and can have them on the road in seconds.
I've studied the way the cars are presented on the map. It's usually pretty accurate and any lag is on the order of a few seconds, rather than minutes. I can drive down the road watching my progress on the passenger app and it will lag maybe a half-block.
Yes, an Uber driver can turn the phone off, but the instant he does that, the tracking stops and he's not going to be getting paid. It *might* happen, but I can't see any advantage in doing it. Even if he did manage to pull some sort of shonky, the passenger will likely spot it because the end of ride map won't correspond to the reality - especially if the fare is somehow out of the ordinary.
I won't comment on taxi security cameras except to say they usually aren't much help to driver or passenger. Police aren't going to get involved for minor stuff that involves effort on their part.
If an Uber driver has an internal camera - some do - then don't go blaming him for being amused by your drunken antics. Any Uber driver posting frivolous footage on social media is going to be in hot water. I have, however, seen drivers post footage of assaults and racial abuse.
I don't agree with the Uber surge model. I think that if there's a hundred passengers wanting one of the ten available Ubers, then a surcharge to get priority treatment is reasonable. I don't think paying a surcharge for all the ride, especially for those parts where there is no surge demand, is fair on the passenger. Some rides can end up costing many times a cab fare.
Some Uber drivers go hunting surge fares. These are generally the same drivers who won't drive to a railway station to pick up a passenger who is likely only going a few blocks. I think that this is a poor strategy, and they remain idle waiting for lucrative fares which may not come. The way to make money is to have a passenger in the car and the wheels turning.
Some Uber drivers get sucked in by the inflated promises. The return is never going to be high, and a net of $20 an hour is about as good as it's ever going to get. For a good driver. But I'm making money, enjoying a good part-time job, and my passengers are reporting satisfaction with the system. If they were losing out, they wouldn't be so enthusiastic. Most tell me that they will NEVER take another cab.
It's not the mess implied. Uber is certainly raking in the money, but drivers are doing okay, and passengers love Uber. The taxi industry had a monopoly for decades, and they didn't lift their game. It's not going to go back the way it was, and the lazy, the greedy, the slovenly, and the dishonest are getting the short end of the stick.
In a few years, the drivers will be removed from the equation altogether. Self-driving cars will leave very little room for the traditional taxi and cut costs severely. It would be possible for a self-driving Uber to charge a dollar a ride, regardless of length, and still make money driving 24/7. The current taxi drivers will be the ones cleaning and restocking cars at three in the morning when there's some downtime.
Think about it. If a self-driving electric car costs about the same as a new Commodore, then you can buy one, hook it into some crowd-sourced system, and have it earning money when you don't need it. Which could be all day, every day. Anything over 1.5 rides per hour at a dollar a pop, and you're making a profit.
