It’s hard for me to feel sorry for an industry that has refused to innovate for so long and simply assumed that their gravy train monopoly would continue forever despite pathetic customer service and rampant gouging/rorts.
The government WANTED and enforced the monopoly so it had control...that is why plate values were high...you were paying for the right to be the only (or one of a set number) Transport Provider in that area...it also got hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on schools and hospitals from plate sales and stamp duty. Yes there were problems and bad eggs as ALL industries have but there were rules and procedures in place for fixing them.
There were Laws in place preventing any major changes to the systems, the government had a rule for everything and didnt want to change. Taxi companies often tried new things only to be told by Transport it's not allowed. Being law abiding citizens we stopped. Australian taxi companies were among the first in the world to have computerised dispatch, GPS tracking, Safety Cameras etc.
Uber came in an operated illegally for years actively blocking and ignoring Transport Law, they issued fines, none were paid and they kept going...eventually the government folded and threw several thousand small businesses onto the scrapheap. These businesses spent money in your local area. The plate value was the owners superannuation in most cases...imagine what would happen if they took your super by failing to enforce an existing Law...how would you feel. These owners will now go on the pension unless they have other assets. Most people only own one or two licenses and worked hard to pay them off...many are STILL paying them off, despite them being worth nothing.
Uber is the big winner here, it owns NO cars, has NO drivers, has paid NO fees to operate and then takes 30% of every fare to the Netherlands so it pays NO tax. Uber then onsells your data...if it is not hacked first. Ubers Lawyers are also winners due to them being sued on average once per day.
The losers are taxi drivers who have their income reduced, the plate owners whose asset is all but gone, the uber drivers who destroy their car to give consumers subsidised rides, and the government (and therefore the public) who have lost a revenue stream and control of the system. There are minimal training and safety requirements now compared to what there used to be.
If everybody ubers,Public transport use declines, therefore no reason to fund it anymore, congestion increases, need more roads and parking, government pays again. Environmental and pollution problems as the government has no control over the type and age of the car anymore.
There will come a time when drivers (on both systems) refuse to work as there is no adequate pay for the effort...too many cars on the road...this is about where we are now...uber get them to work by surge pricing...increasing fares...taxis will soon follow suit...lets see how long the delays are at Xmas and how high the surge goes...
The old saying is "You pay peanuts - you get Monkeys"
Air BnB is doing the same to Hotels...and annoying thousands of residential ratepayers as well.
Amazon etc is doing the same to retailers...lets see what the shopping centres look like in 10 years time.
Every week there is another retailer closing it seems.
Where are the kids going to get a job? The only jobs left will be cleaning up the drones that deliver us or our stuff.
The public may get cheap stuff now, for a while, but society will pay for it in many other ways....
). In the end, we sat outside Docklands for a bit having a great chat and reminiscing as it turned out we both used to work in the old docks there, well before Docklands! I'd hate to think what his English ability would have been like back then! 
