Investigators from consumer advocacy group Choice have conducted research in Sydney, comparing 28 taxi rides with the same amount of trips using ride-sharing app UberX. In general, taxis were found to be more expensive nine times out of 10, and by an average of 40 percent in terms of their charges.
In approximately 62 percent of the bookings made, a car requested through UberX arrived quicker than a taxi, but on busy streets it was much quicker and easier to hail a cab. Interesting is the effect of surge pricing using UberX, where times of high demand cause an increase in charges that the user must opt into. Taxis actually faired better under this condition, being cheaper by 6 percent in most cases.
Two of the booked taxis didn’t show up at all, which Choice’s spokesman, Tom Godfrey, explains is likely due to driver preference, as they attempt to find longer, more expensive fares. Uber drivers are unable to see a user’s destination until they arrive, and thus don’t have this opportunity to avoid short trips and minimal fares.
The New South Wales Taxi Council recently printed on billboards around Sydney suggested ride-sharing services were “no safer than hitchhiking”, and the use of the app has spurred protests around Australia by the taxi industry in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. In spite of this, ride-sharing was used more than one million times in the year to May, according to Uber themselves.
Stuart Overell, a spokesman for Combined Communications Network, the country’s largest taxi booking service, said the results were “a simple analysis of a more complex issue”. “Many of the extensive safety features of a taxi are not obvious to a passenger. This includes tamper-proof, always-on GPS to constantly track the whereabouts of taxis, as well as permanently powered, fire resistant security cameras to capture activity inside and outside a taxi,” he said.
Overell also explained that it’s not surprising that ride-sharing alternatives are cheaper, as taxi fares are regulated by the government, and this has a significant impact on price. “That’s why, as the largest taxi network in Australia, we are talking with state government to address why drivers have to comply with excessive regulation, while the competition does not,” he said. Until governments actually sort where they stand on the issue, the public will likely continue going for the cheaper, more reliable option for now.
