After months of hostile rhetoric, the State Government and controversial company Uber are now working together to ensure the app-based taxi competitor is operating legally in South Australia.
The sea-change has been led by Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan and Uber’s Australian managing director David Rohrsheim – a former Adelaidean – who are working to bring the car-share company’s “Black” service under the legal umbrella of the Passenger Transport Act.
The Government has previously been extremely hostile to Uber, which is an app-based service to link passengers with drivers. The service began in South Australia in August.
Mullighan told InDaily today that he has never been opposed to competition in the car hire booking industry.
He said that Rohrsheim approached him about two weeks ago, and the pair met to hammer out their differences.
Mullighan said he told the Uber boss he was disappointed the company had begun operating in SA without first ensuring it was working within the laws of the state.
The Uber Black service, which uses an app to link passengers with accredited hire car drivers and cars, was close to being legally compliant, he said.
“I said to him that I’m not quite sure what the issue is,” he said. “I explained that all we need is accreditation of the centralised booking service.”
The only sticking point, Mullighan said, was that the Passenger Transport Act required booking services to have a local presence, so that SA Police and transport officials could easily access driver records in the case of an incident.
The minister said Uber was considering a local presence and examining ways to share its booking information with the local authorities.
However, he said the Uber X service, which links passengers with non-accredited drivers using their own vehicles, would be opposed by the Government because of safety concerns (Uber X does not yet operate in SA).
After Uber started operating in August, then acting transport minister Tom Koutsantonis warned that the service was illegal and dangerous.
“It’s a very dangerous option to take an Uber service – you don’t know who’s driving the car,” he said.
“You don’t know if the car has been checked and, most importantly, we can’t know when you got into that car and where you got out of that car or where you were meant to go.”
Mullighan said today that the Government supported competition in the industry.
“Absolutely. The Government has never been anti-competitive when it comes to the taxi and hire car industry,” he said.
“The Government’s concern hasn’t been an anti-competitive one – it’s been a regulatory one.”
If an alternative company can offer a more cost-effective and attractive booking services to drivers, “then we welcome that”.
In September, InDaily exclusively reported that the Government’s Accreditation and Licensing Centre for the taxi and hire car industry had initiated legal action against 11 South Australian-based Uber partners – both drivers and operators.
Mullighan confirmed today that this legal action was proceeding.
Rohrsheim told InDaily this week that he had engaged in “constructive dialogue” with the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure about “how Uber’s technology can work in SA”.
Uber has never conceded that its South Australian operations breach local laws.
The Uber app requires passengers to pre-register their details with the service, including credit card details.
Customers can then get a quote for a trip, check if there’s a nearby driver, book the car and then track its progress to their pick-up point.
Customers are sent the driver’s details and photograph. Likewise, the customer’s details are retained by Uber. Then, both driver and customer can rate each other via the app.
