UPDATED: Up to 2000 South Australian taxi drivers could face prosecution and loss of their licenses as the State Government expands its crackdown on “unaccredited” booking services that utilise Smartphone technology.

InDaily reported yesterday that the Government is preparing a prosecution case against controversial taxi competitor Uber, which uses an app to allow customers to connect with hire car drivers in South Australia.

The Government argues that Uber is an unaccredited booking service, and is in breach of the Passenger Transport Act because it doesn’t have a physical presence in South Australia where officers can view records.

It says it is preparing a prosecution case against the service, and that individual drivers could have their accreditation suspended or cancelled.

Today, the Government revealed it is also preparing to prosecute the Australian taxi booking app, GoCatch, which connects customers with accredited taxi drivers.

The GoCatch service has been operating in Adelaide for well over a year, with the company telling InDaily that about 2000 Adelaide drivers have signed up to the service.

Those drivers now face the same sanctions as Uber drivers.

In the wake of yesterday’s story, InDaily asked the Government why GoCatch wasn’t facing the same action as Uber, which has only been operating in South Australia for just over a week.

In response, a Government spokesperson said: “The State Government is also looking to prosecute GoCatch for breaches of the Act, and is collecting information to this end.”

“If taxi drivers are found using unaccredited smartphone apps, including GoCatch, they face prosecution for breaches of the Act.”

The Government wouldn’t reveal why it had apparently taken so long to take action against GoCatch and its drivers, while its move against Uber was  initiated in the first week of the company’s entry into the SA market.

However, InDaily understands that GoCatch has been talking to Government officials about how to bring its app in line with legislative requirements, while Uber has not.

Taxi Council SA President Jim Triantafyllou welcomed the Government’s move, saying the council “supports the prosecution of anyone using a booking system that does not comply with government regulations”.

“Approved and registered booking services, including online options, are available through the three registered taxi booking companies of Yellow Cabs, Suburban Taxis and Adelaide Independent Taxis,” he told InDaily.

“These approved companies offer passengers the security and safety of being fully compliant with the law, ensuring drivers have been fully trained, the cars are fitted with the latest security features including CCTV and they have physical offices offering additional services such as lost property.”

GoCatch was founded in Sydney in 2011 by Andrew Campbell and University of Adelaide engineering graduate Ned Moorfield.

The app allows customers to tap in their location and destination and submit a request for a taxi direct to individual drivers who also use the app.

Like Uber, GoCatch has been unpopular with taxi companies, because it allows customers to sidestep the networks’ booking systems.

Moorfield said the situation was a case of technology getting ahead of regulation, and if the authorities in South Australia were smart about it they would adjust the legislation to allow greater competition.

“I think what’s really happening is the regulators in every state and territory are working out where we sit – and I don’t think that’s cut and dried,” he said.

“We would hope that the regulators would see that competition is a good thing.”

Uber’s Australian general manager David Rohrsheim told InDaily yesterday that “every UberBlack partner is fully licensed and complies with all local laws, I don’t expect anybody will be receiving any fines”.

“Despite similar complaints from the taxi industry in NSW, the same UberBlack technology has been flourishing in Sydney for two years,” he said.

Uber has faced opposition from governments and taxi operators in most of the jurisdictions in which it operates.

A court in Germany has this week ordered the company to stop operating because it is in breach of local laws. Uber says it will contest the decision.