interesting article.

It looks like Uber will make the existing regulated taxi cartel unsustainable. The conventional taxi industry won’t die, but it will have to change. That’s good news for customers, who pay higher prices for poorer service under the regulated model.

I don't see why it should be called disruption rather than freedom. All that's happening is that people are able to associate with each other in consensual transactions on what terms they mutually agree to, which is as it should be.

It's the politicians and their parasitic cartel guilds that are disruptive of a free society.

I think it's great that people are able to get around the protection rackets that government has been able to set up, and we are only seeing the beginning of it now. This will be revolutionary. It will affect money, banking, credit, zoning, transport, and many industries that are now suffocated under the fat arse of government.

For years, elements of the taxi industry have been doing their best to alienate and lose customers. The motivation to try something else is already there.

I agree with Jardine, but aren't we too optimistic?

As the government finds that there is no other economic choice, they will order all taxis to join Uber, give Uber tax-concessions and extra rights such as the right to travel in the public-transport lanes, thus bring them under its wings just as it did with all the other big corporations.

Thus freedom would be short-lived, no individual car owners will be allowed to make their own truly-private deals and whereas currently I only use cash to pay taxi drivers, now Big Brother would know everything about your bank accounts and where you travel.

The need to control is insatiable - http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/framechapter10.html

I agree with the rest of the posters. In my experience the Australian taxi service is the poorest quality and highest priced in the world. Uber and similar services are simply a response to demand.

Down with protectionism of stagnant industries and long live capitalism! :)

I've commented here before that as the electorate becomes better educated and more affluent, party platforms will look less and less attractive to them, and there will be an increasing demand for a government which is purely rational and objective, unaffected by ideology and immune to pressure groups. Uber's tactics illustrate one way in which this could be brought about.

There are many situations in which government is important and necessary, but regulating private transport systems is not one of them. Its only job here is to get out of the way.

Hear hear Jon J.
Rhrosty.

You can't have willy nilly public transport, any one setting up a business must follow rules, if not for their own protection, the protection of the public.
Taxies pay something like 250,000 $ to get a taxi license.
Deregulated taxies could be a good thing but rules must be followed.
Who would want a system like US where you can have several deaths a day, just geting in a taxi.
Checks and balances is the name of the game.

579

You do, of course, have a credible source for your claim of “several deaths a day, just getting in a taxi” in the USA?

Anyway, the taxi industry in the USA is pretty mixed - some states and cities are more regulated than others, and Uber has been just as controversial there.

Uber shows pretty clearly that government regulation is not needed to ensure safe, clean taxis and dependable drivers. In fact, I’d much prefer the Uber way of passenger feedback encouraging good service than the patent failures of regulation (in WA we have had several cases of sexual assault by licenced taxi drivers).

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-taxi-driver-charged-with-sex-assault-of-a-female-passenger-20140908-10dxkp.html

Even if we want government to regulate taxi industry standards, however, that is no reason to artificially restrict the number of cabs on the road or allow exorbitant licence fees that restrict competition and push up fares.

Totally agree with Uber's principles. After being involved as a driver/owner back in the 1980s & 90s in NSW and ACT, recently did a bit of P/T driving in Tassie couple of years ago as well. This entire Taxi industry needs a deep sharp boot up the arse, cut out the "middle man" centralised dispatch system aka radio networks, put customers & drivers communicating directly and its win win for those actually involved in participating in the service. In other words, "the front line".
State governments in the recent past and today have to be seen to be doing something to justify their existence and besides the current Taxi Driver system provides business for education providers as well, so they get to "kill" two birds with one stone.
Example:
To get a Taxi License just to be a driver today, and this started getting serious at least in NSW anyway around the time of the 2000 Olympics IIRC. One has to go to Taxi driver school, pay hundreds of dollars (about $650+ in 2013, which also includes medical, police report and other government fees) for a week's worth of mind numbing, bleeding obvious "education" aka common sense or just plain logic about how to use a street directory, operate the meter etc... practically an insult to one's intelligence imo. I mean, anyone can operate a Taxi meter, its like your TV remote control... Biggest ripoff in eduction anyone's ever seen or heard of in this county. You come out of it with a Statement of Attainment aka Certificate II in Driving operations (Taxi). I proudly keep this in a folder now along with many other useless certificates.

This new school business model from Uber should be and will get extended to other service delivery industries in good time. Bring on the revolution!