Uber to be made legal in South Australia

South Australia will make it legal for Uber and other ride-sharing services like GoCatch to enter the market in July 2016. Currently any ride-sharing and taxi applications are banned from being used.

Following in NSW’s footsteps, the local government will be compensating each of the 1,137 taxi licence holders $30,000 each. That’s a total of $34 million funded by $1 tariffs on fares. Earlier this year, NSW offered a $250 million compensation for taxi licensees, which was also funded by an extra $1 tariffs. Taxi drivers will have exclusive rights to rank and hail passengers and Uber will not operate at the airport.

It is still uncertain whether or not UberX will be launched in South Australia as it will need to be reviewed first. Uber Adelaide general manager Tom White said, “We hope the government will consider the removal of arbitrary red tape, including unnecessary costs or time delays, that would prevent South Australians from being able to access flexible work (with Uber) when they need it.”