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Further implications

Uber is clearly making significant inroads among commuters who would previously have used taxis. Between January 2013 and the end of 2014, Uber's market share grew more than 700 per cent. As of a year ago, there was $12 spent on cab fares for every $1 spent on Uber fares and given that Uber fares are typically lower than taxi fares this would suggest that Uber currently has at least 10 percent of the market base.
Currently, in states and territories other than New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, Uber operates in a grey area outside regulation. There are no laws that apply to the booking service that the company supplies through its app. Where Uber drivers have been taken to court for supplying an illegal service, the company typically pays for their legal expenses.
In those jurisdictions where Uber has been legalised, governments have spoken of the legalisation as though it were no more than bowing to an innovative inevitability. When Uber was legalised in New South Wales, the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Andrew Constance, stated, 'These reforms are expected to blow the doors of innovation wide open for "booked" services, where customers can track their driver, provide direct feedback, hold them more accountable and choose from accessible price points.'
Mr Constance further stated, 'Consumers have moved with technology. It's time for industry and government to move in the same way.'
It seems likely that Uber will ultimately be legalised in all Australian states and territories. Now that it has been legalised in New South Wales, an anomaly is created for drivers legally transporting passengers in that state who then want to travel into the adjoining states of Victoria, South Australia or Queensland. Given Uber's current Australian growth rate prior to legalisation, with nation-wide legalisation it can only grow further and faster.
Internationally the company has become a behemoth; valued at over $US60 billion, it is a magnet for investors. In its most mature market, San Francisco, where the company originated, after four years it was already bigger than the whole taxi market. Uber's chief executive officer, Travis Kalanick, claimed that the whole taxi market in San Francisco was worth about $US140 million per year. Uber's revenues in San Francisco are purportedly running at $US500 million per year.
After the legalisation of Uber in New South Wales Australian Taxi Drivers Association spokesman, Michael Jools, stated, 'It's good in that we have now got a degree of certainty, but that certainty is that the industry as we know it has been destroyed.' Discounting the negative slant, Mr Jools's judgement seems accurate. If developments in the United States can be used as a guide, Uber will not remain the junior partner in the Australian hire car/taxi transport industry. It is likely soon to have a majority share of what is currently the taxi market in Australia.
This means that concerns about the fairness of the terms of driver employment, about the training given drivers, the maintenance of vehicles and about indemnity for passengers harmed during Uber booked trips need to be addressed now or they are unlikely to be so. Uber has the capacity to create a monopoly greater than that current taxi licence plate holders have generated and one harder to regulate as the parent company is based off-shore and all drivers are merely individual private contractors.