Opinion: Uber set to run over taxis

WHILE I sympathise with taxi drivers with the encroachment of Uber and other ride sharing services, ultimately, people are going to vote with their wallets.

WHILE I sympathise with taxi drivers everywhere with the encroachment of Uber and other ride sharing services, ultimately, people are going to vote with their feet and their wallets.

Let's face it, it is bloody expensive catching a taxi anywhere.

I caught a cab to and from the airport in Sydney for a conference last week. Total distance was 13km and the trip took about 20 minutes each way. That service cost me over $80.

I'm sure taxis have many overheads that I can't even begin to imagine. While I empathise with the dilemma that digital disruption has basically rendered taxi licences worthless, if Uber is much cheaper, then next time I'm getting a ride with them.

Market forces are going to dictate who travels with who and the government is on a slippery slope if it decides to come to the aid of the taxi industry.

If they start helping digitally disrupted industries they will have their hands in their pockets forever more.

Trying to halt Uber's progress by fining its drivers or potentially taking points off their licence is only going to force ride sharing underground.

If whole revolutions have been organised via mobile phones, how are you going to stop someone sharing their car with another person?

Newspapers have been digitally disrupted, but I don't see any government trying to shut down aggregating social media sites that share news stories for free.

Taxis need to drastically lower their fares to compete otherwise Uber is just going to run right over the top of them.