ROGUE Uber drivers are ignoring airport pick-up bans and avoiding Tullamarine taxes while clogging up the one-minute parking bays there.

The illegal drivers for the popular ride-sharing service are also doing airport runs and other jobs off the books, often undercutting licensed cabs as they do so, and handing their cards to customers to make money on the side, the Sunday Herald Sun can reveal.

It comes as an Uber driver will face Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next month in a test case that could set a legal ruling to outlaw the business.

UberX users are banned on the app from setting their pick-up location as Melbourne airport with only the more expensive UberBlack chauffeur service available.

But UberX drivers have found a loophole, telling passengers to set their location outside the terminal on the app’s map, and phone the driver when they are ready.

“You just move the pin to set your location to a few minutes away as it’s blocked at the airport,’’ one driver said.

A search on Gumtree also revealed other unregulated drivers making a quick buck by advertising chauffeur services and airport transfers.

Uber drivers are avoiding the airport’s $2.70 levy that taxis are forced to pass on to passengers, bypassing cabbies stuck in a waiting yard and heading straight to the terminals for pre-booked fares.

Taxi Services Commission tsar Graeme Samuel said Uber was proving impossible to stop.

“In one sense, what Uber is demonstrating is how hard it is to stop someone using digital technology,” Mr Samuel said.

“I have empathy for those (taxi drivers) facing challenges but I just don’t think you can ban people using apps.”

In an emailed statement, Uber spokeswoman Katie Curran blamed “outdated rules’’ at Melbourne airport which favour the “incumbent industry’’. But she would not elaborate on the rules, nor would she return phone calls, requesting questions by email only.

But Melbourne airport spokeswoman Carly Dixon said the airport did not regulate Uber and had not made any rules to block its cars.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation found a trip from Tullamarine to North Melbourne cost $21 less in a UberX compared to a taxi last week.

We did a cost and time comparison for four Melbourne journeys including airport routes. Taxis were twice the cheaper option.

Victorian Taxi Association spokeswoman Georgia Nicholls said: “All that Victorian taxi businesses seek is a level playing field. Meaningful penalties must be introduced and enforced against those who openly choose to flout the law and endanger public safety.

South Australia has banned UberX. Victoria’s Transport Minister Jacinta Allan has sought advice from the taxi regulator about the company.

Passengers use a mobile phone app to order an UberX car and drivers use their own vehicles to ferry passengers.

Passengers receive a fare estimate upon booking and no cash changes hands with the price deducted from the credit card hooked up to the account.

Unlike taxi drivers, they are not required to buy expensive “taxi plates” or pass strict knowledge tests. The Taxi Service Commission has fined 80 illegal cabbies but Uber has paid all infringements.

Backed by giants such as Google, the ride-sharing service runs in 50 countries and across 250 cities.

Uber has defended its practice and says each car is roadworthy, insured and drivers pass criminal checks.

It's a great idea.

Time to sell your cab licence Aussie, while it's still worth something and join Uber.

Aussie wrote on May 11^th, 2015 at 5:15pm:



hilarious.. once again its all someone elses fault... we know...I have yet to have a taxi driver arrive on time.. that would be a novelty..

I also need to add that Uber is loving the free publicity the dumbass schmedia give it.  These schmedia articles come up because some cub reporter needs an easy story, and off they go for one edition of tomorrow's fish 'n chip wrapping.  Up here, the industry has decided that we ought not respond any more ~ publicly, as that just gives them the free publicity they want and the pay packet justification for the said cub reporter.

The industry is working with Government to get this sorted.....not the schmedia.

1.  Driver training.
2.  Security including lost property provisions.
3.  Regular vehicle safety inspections and certifications.
4.  Be subject to random inspections at any time.
5.  Be subject to random administration audits at any time.
6.  Licencing of drivers and regulation of them, including health checks, behaviour checks, security checks, police checks and general supervision checks, including methods of dealing with customer complaints.
7.  Proper and appropriate 'plate' licencing.  That is.....like we have to, pay for the right to offer transport to the public, not assume it.
8.  Pay so that anyone a Uber driver harms through negligent driving is covered by regulated insurance.  We pay near to $7,000.00 per vehicle to get rego/insurance so that if we harm you, you are assured of compensation.
9.  Pay what we have to pay to comprehensively insure the vehicle against third party property damage...presently around $5,000.00 pa.
10.  Pay all the airport taxes we pay as a matter of course.
11.  Have a proper documented contractual arrangement with drivers.
12.  Pay to have them insured if they are injured in doing their job.....similar to work cover.
13.  Provide proper security arrangements for any customer who gets in the car.....through internal cameras, audio technology.....that also costs money.
14.  Ensure there is no ad hoc 'spike demand' cost increase for use if there is some unusual event, as Uber did when that Lindt Cafe incident occurred.  Taxis do not increase rates if it is flooding, cyclonic, earth quacking, burning or whatever.  We are out there.

.

Those are the Rules.  Uber operates outside them....and they are operating illegally.

They have been ordered to cease and desist in Queensland and it is costing them plenty each week for their illegal operations.