The Victorian Government Has Started Fining UberX Drivers
This is why we can't have nice things.
As the NSW Government continues to examine whether Uber’s new low-cost service, UberX — which allows any driver with insurance and no criminal record to operate their car as a cheap taxi — is illegal under state law, drivers in Victoria are already being slapped with fines.
Representatives from Victoria’s Taxi Services Commission have been using the app to identify drivers and issue them with a $1700 fine, with Commissioner Graeme Samuel telling Fairfax that “well over” 30 fines — over $50,000 worth — have so far been issued for non-compliance with the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983.
This is what they look like, according to one driver who published his on a forum.
The fines come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following the story: while NSW came out strongly against UberX last week, the Victorian government was more open to the idea, with Commissioner Samuel saying there was a place for UberX on the market: “What we want to do is to facilitate competition and we see Uber as a source of competition,” he said at the end of last month. “But it needs to be competition that is on grounds to protect the public interest.”
Unfortunately, UberX did not heed his recommendations to work with the Commission on making sure the drivers were properly licensed, and had gone through thorough checks — as a result, the Commissioner now believes they aren’t operating within state law. “Uber could have avoided all of this if they had just come in and seen us three weeks ago,” he told Fairfax. “It just leaves me absolutely gobsmacked the way they have dealt with this.”
To read more about UberX, and the legal and ethical debate that surrounds it, head to our Junk Explained column.