Australian Federal Police powerless to stop Uber on the Gold Coast

UBER drivers are operating right under the noses of the Australian Federal Police but authorities are powerless to stop it.

Uber has operated under the noses of federal police.

UBER drivers are bypassing Gold Coast Airport’s “traffic police” by parking at a nearby public block of shops that allows drivers quick access to the airport’s pick-up/drop-off area.

For the past three months, drivers have used the shared car park at Eastern Drive, Bilinga which includes businesses such as Subway and former tenant, the Australian Federal Police.

Having allegedly been chased away from no stopping zones by airport staff and the AFP for “clogging up” roads around the Gold Coast Airport, Uber has also introduced an electronic queue for drivers entering a zone around the airport at Bilinga.

The drivers then wait at the public carpark before being assigned a job.

Uber driver Steve Saunders, 45, regularly picks up passengers from the Gold Coast Airport and said before the company took action with the electronic queue, drivers would regularly bend rules in order to pick up more work.

“People were parking their cars, walking in and sitting right next to the baggage terminal with their Uber phone because they wanted to be the closest person to get the request,” he said.

Uber has operated under the noses of federal police.

“You had Federal Police chasing off Uber drivers constantly for stopping in no-stopping zones because they were trying to get as close as they could to the airport so they would be allocated the job.”

“They (Uber) created a zone on their maps. As soon as you enter the zone which is pretty much as soon as you cross the Gold Coast Highway and turn into the airport, you go into this electronic booking queue.

“You put your feet up there, wash your car, fill up with fuel, get some food and sit and wait.

“As soon as you leave the zone – that is you decide to take a job in Cooly or you go fishing for jobs in Cooly, you drop in the queue.

“If you reject a ride, you go to the back of the queue.”

Mr Saunders said the initiative had proven a valuable tool that had put to bed any need for a dedicated Uber rank at the airport.

“You get the request when you’re sitting in the car quite relaxed,” he said.

“You wait a minute or two, you give the customer a call, you say, ‘Are you ready? Have you moved over to the passenger pick-up area?’.

“You cruise by like any normal person does.”

Uber’s Brisbane general manager Mike Abbott said there were more than 40,000 registered users of the service on the Gold Coast, and nearly 1000 drivers.

Gold Coast Cabs have been lobbying to ban Uber from the Coolangatta precinct.

However, airport management concede it would be near impossible to enforce a ban on the unmarked cars and drivers.

Airport bosses have said if Uber became regulated, it would be accommodated – and until then, there wasn’t much airport staff could do to keep them out.

Originally published as Australian Federal Police powerless to stop Uber on the Gold Coast