Last time I was in sydney I used UBER about 5 or 6 times. Each trip was excellent. The drivers were in clean, high end cars (Merc E class, BMW 7 series etc.) The drivers were well dressed, the cars were clean and the service couldn't be faulted - it was almost like having a personal driver. And the premium over a normal cab? $10 at best - which is the price of a schooner of beer.
The normal cab system over there is worse than here - the cars are old, normally with shoddy brakes and pogo suspension - vinyl clad sticky interiors - although while you do get the few ranting opinionated drivers, mostly the others are OK - even if the driving is somewhat suspect.
I'm not sure if the same applies over here but the taxi industry in Aus is basically a mafia - shady connections in government, business operators etc. Crazy licensing fees - unless you join certain unions. It's properly crazy and dodgy. I know this because I once worked with a company trying to build a better cab service (I did the branding) and the hurdles they had to go through were nuts.
They weren't even trying to undercut normal taxis - they wanted to provide better transport for people with disability by making every cab accessible (based on new mercedes Vito).
At any rate, this taxi warrior dude (if he's real) sounds like a douche and is one of the problems with any taxi service that needs to be removed.
Last time I was in sydney I used UBER about 5 or 6 times. Each trip was excellent. The drivers were in clean, high end cars (Merc E class, BMW 7 series etc.) The drivers were well dressed, the cars were clean and the service couldn't be faulted - it was almost like having a personal driver. And the premium over a normal cab? $10 at best - which is the price of a schooner of beer.
The normal cab system over there is worse than here - the cars are old, normally with shoddy brakes and pogo suspension - vinyl clad sticky interiors - although while you do get the few ranting opinionated drivers, mostly the others are OK - even if the driving is somewhat suspect.
I'm not sure if the same applies over here but the taxi industry in Aus is basically a mafia - shady connections in government, business operators etc. Crazy licensing fees - unless you join certain unions. It's properly crazy and dodgy. I know this because I once worked with a company trying to build a better cab service (I did the branding) and the hurdles they had to go through were nuts.
They weren't even trying to undercut normal taxis - they wanted to provide better transport for people with disability by making every cab accessible (based on new mercedes Vito).
At any rate, this taxi warrior dude (if he's real) sounds like a douche and is one of the problems with any taxi service that needs to be removed.