The recent backlash over the Uber X ridesharing service in Sydney is gaining critical mass, with a recent gathering of local taxi drivers calling out to the NSW Government to stop the service in the nation’s largest city.
NSW taxi drivers met last night and came to the conclusion that the service has the potential to drive them out of business.
Uber X offers rides from ordinary drivers rather than officially licensed cab drivers, and provides fares at sub-taxi rates.
According to the ABC, the head of the NSW Taxi Council, Roy Wakelin-King said that “ridesharing is bad”, while also urging the NSW Government to “uphold the law”.
The NSW Government has threatened Uber X drivers en massé, saying that anyone caught operating a so-called ridesharing service will be made to pay fines of $110,000 per offence.
Despite the fact that Uber X isn’t technically legal in the state of NSW, Uber Sydney decided to launch the low-cost ridesharing option anyway.
Since then, protests from taxi drivers who feel the service undermines their legal cab operations while also undercutting their expensive license fees have rolled on.
The most dramatic protest of late came when a man attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest of an Uber X driver in a bid to get the driver fined by the Government for running a ridesharing service in contravention to local laws.
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[ABC]