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Uber to pay Australian taxi operators $272 million in class action settlement (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Fuck off.

Uber sucks but the Taxi industry were far worse. They lobbied for limited numbers of licenses that cost ridiculous amounts of money, so they kept supply low while offering the worst services possible. You'd be lucky to get one unless it was the most expensive rip-off of a trip they could get out of you, forget going a 'short' distance.

Those arseholes deserved to lose every bit of business that they did as soon as an alternative rocked up, disgusting to see them profit off their decades of horrible public opinion.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Once got into a cab at a rank with my mate. Didn't even close the door before getting a message that we're meeting somewhere else, so got out but the driver started moving while I was half out of the cab. Then stops, hits the meter and demands $20 because he "drove" us. Guy almost crushed my foot. He then wouldn't let my friend leave until he got payment. We said we're complaining, got the details, and left. Lodged a complaint and heard nothing.

A fairly common experience in Australian taxis. I have a lot of stories like this. Lots involving crashes or being passenger to someone speeding. Or rip-offs that were insane.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I once got a taxi from Sydney airport when I was there for work. The guy tried to go through the boom gate by tailgating the car in front. Broke the boom gate and just kept driving.

Lots of taxi drivers here are completely terrible. Try to rip people off and have had a lot of friends file sexual harassment complaints too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

One of my few taxi rides in Sydney; double-lane closing out to single-lane roundabout. Taxi driver wouldn't be beaten by the only other car on the road. Sped so fast to be in front, he had no time to brake for the roundabout so we just hit it, got airborne, went over it, then stopped a few hundred metres ahead because of at least one puncture.

I walked away to the hissing sound of deflating tyre while he apologised to get me to stay, then got mad for walking away without payment. Fortunately the next one was really nice and stuck around at my destination to help me with reporting it so the HQ would definitely get the details.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

To this day, I won't see foot in a taxi. I went to Niagara falls recently and they were like vultures, circling me as soon as I left the train station. And they wanted to charge me double what Uber would, to get me to the same place. Not to mention the cabs are run down, smell, and the cabbies are shady as shit

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What is this? They have to pay their competition?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Yeah uber are cunts but....what is this shit. I don't wanna go all 'free market' but...how the fuck do you owe someone money because your service did better then theirs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Regulatory capture, the taxi's had lobbied for a permit system, where only a set number of licenses were handed out for taxi vehicles. Uber came into the market and side-stepped the whole thing by saying 'lol we're not technically a taxi so we can have as many vehicles as we want'. This is payment for lost profits/damages from the taxi companies little legal scam falling out from under them.

It's entirely bullshit, but that's the reasoning for it all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

NOW IM EVEN MORE ANNOYED

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

As you should be:-). It is possible for both sides of a conflict to be in the wrong:-P.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Bear in mind their service was only "better" because they ran it at a massive loss for years upon years, with the sole intention of killing the competition, then jacked their prices up to nearly the same, but with no job security for their drivers

This happens in almost every industry and should absolutely definitely be regulated, it's just the taxis are a bad example because they were cunts to start with lol

Uber are greedy billionaire fuckers and need to be put down a peg, make no mistake

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Bc corruption, one presumes, getting the government to get involved with people's rights to choose. Yeah it's weird for me too:-P.

Total deregulation=anarchy, but not all regulations are good either. This is the kind of stuff that made people choose capitalism in the first place, to try to get away from it (not that it worked, obviously).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

yeah I honestly feel dirty as fuck with my....capitalistic...feelings towards this but this is just weird.

This is like when Desantis had me siding with fucking Disney in a battle against the government lol. I feel dirty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I mean part of why they did better was by using the ride sharing aspect to side step the laws that regulate regular taxis. Sort of like how AirBnB sidestepped rental and subdivision laws using the home sharing aspect... Actually the main competative advantage of all of these recent side hustle businesses is just crime.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Uber has agreed to pay $271.8 million to Australian taxi and hire car drivers, operators and licence holders to compensate them for losing income and licence values when the rideshare giant moved into the Australian market.

The settlement is the fifth largest in Australian history and one of the most successful class actions against the rideshare giant, the lawyers behind the case said in a statement on Monday morning.

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Michael Donelly said the settlement was preceded by a five-year legal battle in which Uber "fought tooth and nail at every point along the way".

"But on the courtroom steps and after years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say they harmed, Uber has blinked, and thousands of everyday Australians joined together to stare down a global giant", Mr Donelly said.

More than 8,000 taxi and hire car owners were part of the class action suit, which was filed in 2019.

The lead plaintiff is Nick Andrianakis, who told the ABC at the time that he was forced out of the taxi business when Uber entered the Australian market.

The original article contains 292 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 36%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Australians of Lemmy, what’s how has Uber impacted your taxi industry.

All I know is that, as an American, my experience with your cab industry felt very very different than my experience in the states. Your cabs felt much cleaner, safer, and more reliable than what was available in major US metros.

Also, last time I was there I still noticed a LOT of cabs still driving around. That’s not the case in many American cities these days.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Cabs here fucking suck, Uber forced them to up their game a bit but they're still the worse option.

My memory of cabs is ridiculously expensive, cancelling trips or never showing up, driving dangerously, racially discriminating, sexual assaults, refusing rides if not far enough, talking on the phone or radio while driving, reeking of cigarettes, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You just described most of my experiences with Uber

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

In Australia I find they’re great. Super cheap, can get a ride in >10 minutes, clean, drivers are friendly. Only real complaint is a bit of the talking on devices, but that’s rare.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. How much of the nation’s cabs are like 13 Cabs? I was surprised that those things were decently clean, had security cameras, and had app hailing with GPS tracking.

American cabs are still often old school. You call to request one that might or might not come, there is often no app to see where / when the cab will arrive, there are no cameras or security features for passengers, and some cabbies might aggressively ask for cash. And I’m talking about getting a cab in the San Francisco / Silicon Valley area… Uber’s home turf. So these cabs feel like time traveling to the 90’s.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

They are only clean and have GPS or even apps since Uber. Before they had competition, only premium cabs were vaguely healthy to use.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Dunno, I just catch public transport or walk everywhere. I know this option isn't as accessible or available for everyone. I also don't want to have an app for every single thing so that's why I've never used uber or the like (including food delivery) and just waited by the roadside to hail a cab on the very rare occasions I needed one. Again, something I know not everyone has immediate or close access to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yeah, I’m kind of jealous of that too. Public transport in major Australian cities is often much better than it’s American counterparts.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Uber is worth 127 billion, btw. 🙂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

This is such bullshit. Shoulda they fine uber the 274 million for sidestepping the regulation? Sure, fuck uber. But those grubby cunts in the taxi industry shouldn't get a fucking cent of that money.

Even if you're thinking of the half-dozen hard working drivers who aren't dodgy cunts; you know they're not seeing any of this money. It's all going to the medallion owners who do fuck all and make fucking all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

8'000, 272 Million... So 34'000 AUD for each of them. For the losses over at the very least 5 years. So at most 6'800 per year. Sounds like nothing really. How much is Uber making in the same period?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I guess the question is, what were the average damages to Australian cabbies?

Australia’s cab industry is not like the cab industry in Uber’s home country.

Last time I was in Australia, I still saw a shit load of cabs. In many American cities there are only a few dozen cabs around. Uber easily squashed the cab industry in the states because the alternative passenger experience wasn’t even close.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Cabs had lobbied a highly profitable monopoly here, so any competition was a loss from their self assumed god given right to everyone's wallet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Don't forget the ambulance chasing lawyers cut.

These guys advertise hard so I expect half of the award will go to them minimum.