Areview of the state’s taxi, chauffeur and rideshare industries has proposed allowing Uber to operate in regional areas, including the Limestone Coast, with the Transport Minister challenging the operator to “put their money where their mouth is”.
The landmark review recommends sweeping reforms for taxi, access cab, chauffeur and rideshare industries such as better security, stronger vehicle identification and removing barriers for service delivery in regional South Australia.
The broad series of reforms, with changes to focus on enhancing safety, reliability and fairness, were recommended after a wide-ranging review of the state’s Passenger Transport Act.
The review by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport was informed by feedback from industry, customers and both internal and external stakeholders through public consultation.
The changes proposed would allow more taxis into the SA market, which will combat surge pricing, helping bring down fares for customers, and broaden availability statewide.
Another key recommendation was to remove barriers for service delivery in regional South Australia and city fringe areas, which will allow metropolitan taxis, chauffeur and rideshare vehicles to operate statewide.
The review heard from stakeholders across the taxi industry about the devastating impact the introduction of rideshare has had on the sector.
This was in part due to the regulatory differences between taxis and rideshare, such as camera requirements for taxis only, specialised equipment and regulated fares.
In addition, rideshare operates in an uncapped market, further limiting the taxi industry’s ability to compete.
Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the government intended to adopt all recommendations of this landmark review, but will consult with stakeholders before legislating.
“Rideshare services such as Uber do have the capacity under existing arrangements to operate anywhere in South Australia,” he said.
“The only requirement has been for them to seek an exemption to operate outside the metropolitan boundary, and to date, no such application has been made.
“Nonetheless, as part of our broad review of point-to-point services in South Australia, it was clear that if there is more we can do to encourage these services into regional areas, it should be done.
“We intend to remove the existing metropolitan boundary, which has been in place since 2018, in line with the recommendations of this review.
“Uber has been publicly calling for the removal of this boundary – it is now incumbent on them to put their money where their mouth is to provide services to regions such as the Limestone Coast.”
Uber issued a statement in response to the review, welcoming the expansion into regional areas.
“We have long known that access to transport is an important factor in social mobility, and ridesharing can go a long way to solving many issues for regional cities,” the statement said.
“We are delighted to see the proposed changes to the accreditation conditions to allow taxi and rideshare vehicles to operate statewide, allowing locals in the regional areas to have the same opportunities to choose rideshare as people in Adelaide.
“We believe this change will increase access to transport services for regional South Australians while creating additional earnings opportunities for our driver partners.
“We look forward to working with the South Australian Government on the next stage of reforms.”
