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Uber is taking on the Taxi industry and other Hire Car operators in Adelaide

UBER PROMOTION
Last week Uber conducted free rides around the city
They are currently having a $4-99 fare promotion as of today
There are terms and conditions
These rides are within a core radius
The boundaries are limited up to the following Surburban areas :
Glenelg
Parkholme
Magill
Sefton Park

$4-99 is very cheap for the entire fare
Current Taxi flag falls are just under $4 , that being before the trip starts


Uber are challenging the passenger transportation industry
Im sure there will be a reaction from the Taxi and other Hire Car companies

Do they pay proper wages? Or is Uber in the gun sights of the Fair Work Commissioner too?

As I understand it

UBER drivers pay a % of the fare back to the company [about 20% ?]

Taxi strike in Melbourne today
Cabbies strlking over Uber
This co-incides with a Tram strike in Melbourne as well
There is an expectation of Taxi strikes around Australia to follow suit

With what it costs to purchase a Taxi Plate it is no wonder some of these Taxi owner operators might be feeling aggrieved
Adelaide plates are around the $300,000 mark
It is higher to buy a plate in some Eastern states

for me, it will be Uber or finding alternate options, which do not include a Taxi.

Pre-booked (or so we thought) a taxi, however this pre-booking that we thought we made only is made available on the Drivers' systems 10mins before pickup

Never ever again will I use a Taxi. SInce when has a booking not been a booking???

Ringing up numerous times to find out where the cars were was a joke, woulda got more sense if I was speaking to a call centre in Nepal.

People try to do the right thing by not drink driving, but then this happens and I can understand why people do choose to go down that illegal path

The Emperor
Perhaps try this when booking taxis
Dont book a cab for the time of say 8:00 as an example
There might be  many bookings at the turn of an hour
The taxi companies used to give precedence to people going to the airport.
So given an overload they will preference drivers for airport bookings first
People going to a pub or club or whatever might be the last allocated to the drivers,

This is how you might get around turn of the hour bookings like 8:00
Book the cab for 7:55 , you should get a taxi sent before the 8:00 bookings

This applies to turn of half hours etc
So dont book a cab for 5:30 , book it for 5:25

Good luck, if you do catch a Uber, let us know how the service was

Uber to be legalised in NSW

Announced today
Uber to start in South Australia 1/7/2016

There is talk that existing taxi plate owners will be compensated
An amount of $30000 per plate is on the cards

There are about 1137 taxi plates
Times that by $30,000 and thats an amount just over 34 million

Will that be enough if taxi plates devalue significantly ?

Theres a few Taxi plates for sale on gumtree
They range from 235,000 to 250,000 to buy a plate
At 250,000 the 30,000 compensation package works out to about 12 per cent of the plate value

The question will be will taxi plates drop by more than 12 % now that Uber has entered the fray?

Current drivers taxi wages would surely drop for at least the short term after 1/7/2016
Will that impact greatly on plate values ?

With Uber in , does that open a gateway to other companies like Lyft ?

given the abuse i got today from a taxi driver, i hope uber wins hands down to make taxis extinct, i was in a private car park at Bedford Park & parked in a normal car parking space (in between both white lines) a taxi pulls up behind me (& therefore blocking me) to pick up someone finishing their shift, anyway when i had done what i had to do i politely asked him to either move forward or back so i can back out & get going, forgetting the expletives he said ''what do you want me to do park on South Road''

on the Today show a few weeks ago they had an exercise with two journalists ordering one each & comparing them, amazingly with cameras around they both said the service was friendly & first class but with time & money uber won comfortably

Some comments from Jim T
JT is the President of the Taxi Council SA

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*The State Government decision to allow ride sharing operators including global multi billion dollar giant Uber to pay only a nominal $85 licence fee is a hit for many small mum and dad owners of a single plate in the taxi industry

Some of these very people bought licences from the State Government in good
faith as recently as 12 months ago for up to $320,000.*
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To put things in perspective
If anyone bought a plate for up to $320,000 about this time last year in Adelaide , they might be bit short changed now ?

Uber was allowed to operate in NSW
Taxi plate values  are said to have dropped significantly from an average of $375000 to $300000
About $412 million wiped out , with about 20% drop in plate value

If it drops 20 % in Adelaide
The Plates bought last year for $320000 would have $64000 wiped off
The State Government intends to honor all plate owners $30000 in compensation


QUESTION
A :Should the plate owners be compensated for $30000 ?
B: Should it be a minimum of $30000 , or even more if plates drop further in the next 2 years ?
C: Should there be no compensation at all , using the decree of buyer beware ?
D: Any other solution

B : Might  be a logical solution ?

I have very little sympathy for taxi drivers to be honest.

Had one that got me from Salisbury to the airport in 25 minutes - we were pushing 100 km/h on Kilkenny Rd/David Tce (only slowing to cross the safety camera fitted railway crossing).

One had made a half arsed attempt to use my CabCharge before claiming 'oh CabCharge broken, got another payment method'.

Plus I'm sure we've all heard some of the horror stories of the conduct of many of the drivers.

It's these horror stories that have resulted in Uber et al starting up. If taxi's were behaving themselves, there wouldn't be a need for ride sharing services and they wouldn't see their taxi plate values decreasing as a result.