Uber 'came to our shores, illegally, like pirates', class action plaintiff says

I would feel sorry for the taxi drivers, but I can't bring myself to. I lived in Perth (Western Australia, one of the states reported to be involved in this suit) for almost 10 years without a car, and the taxi industry routinely failed to deliver even a basic service. I can't count the number of times I've had a booked cab fail to turn up, or a driver refuse my fare because it was "too far" or "not far enough". Not to mention the eye-watering costs.

I recently (Feb) used Uber in Perth, and had to wait a maximum of 10 minutes to get a lift, even from the suburbs. Drivers have been unfailingly polite and usually interesting to talk with. It's provided a needed source of supplementary income to people struggling with the mining downturn.

I'm not a fan of Uber's old culture (I have no idea if they're changed since the management shakeup). I'm not a fan of startups just ignoring regulation. But I can't argue about these results.

I hope the taxi industry changes and adapts to Uber, rather than using legislation to force Uber to become more like the taxi industry.

The Taxi industry in Australia is anachronistic, protectionist, inefficient and expensive.

Taxi Licences were artificially limited and their resale value rocketed over time from 10's of thousands to many 100's of thousands. That trend has well and truly reversed with Uber, GoCatch, Didi etc the preferred choice for consumers, due to cleanliness, timeliness, reliability of service, information empowerment, etc

Taxi Licensees face enormous regulatory inefficiencies where they are only allowed to start a journey in their demarcated district.

If they end a journey outside of their licenced region, they cannot pick up a new passenger (if they flaunt this rule they can be slapped with $1000 penalty)

This results in drivers who have each travelled outside their licensed region, passing each other on the return journey with empty cabs driving back to the area where they are allowed to pick up a new passenger.

Taxi fares from a consumer standpoint are approximately 30% extra (anecdotally) and the service and quality of the cars varies wildly from great to terrible.