A state government spokesman reiterated TMR's response that "there are no state geographical boundaries for Booked Hire Service Licences" and did not address whether a ride-share licence cap, similar to the one imposed on taxi licences, should be considered. However, Taxi Council Queensland chief executive Blair Davies said there were 1867 taxi licences in Brisbane as of August last year and this was unlikely to have changed drastically due to the cap in place. This meant that there were more than triple the number of Uber drivers in Brisbane compared with the number of taxi licences, with the potential to be four times that number if Uber had more specific data. Mr Davies said a saturated market could compromise the safety of customers. "In 2016 when Uber was invited to town, we lost the idea of having too many vehicles ... if there are too many taxi drivers out there, they resort to bad behaviour and safety is not maintained," he said.

"In order to provide a safe service, we need to make sure people can make a safe living. "One of the troubles with the Uber model is that they sign up as many drivers as they can get, but if the cake doesn’t get any bigger and there are more drivers, the slices get smaller and smaller. "We know in the taxi industry as we get tougher and tougher the discipline of drivers starts to drop away, so we have reports recently of more incidences of Uber drivers going the longer way rather than the shorter one because they are trying to increase the price." A Brisbane Uber driver with more than 10,000 trips, who asked to remain anonymous, said their weekly Uber income had dropped from $2000 at the end of last year to about $1500 by June 2018. "The reason is saturation – simple," the driver said.

"Uber is making more money for themselves ... which means less money for the ride-sharing drivers." The experienced driver said the solution was to cap the number of ride-share licences because if the trend continued they would reconsider whether working for Uber was worthwhile. Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor at University of Technology Sydney Business School, said the low barriers for getting a ride-share licence were responsible for the boom in popularity and uptake. "Saturation is really important, particularly with ride-share," she said. "Uber requires certain standards of vehicles and many drivers have to buy a new car, lease a car or get finance through Uber to get a new car," she said.

"So if their earnings are undermined when they have already invested capital and their own labour, it adds another level to precariousness that workers may feel." Ms Kaine said whether a cap on ride-share licences should be considered was "a really pointy question". "There's quite a lot of people who use of Uber as a supplementary income - some use it for social aspects and others to supplement underemployment. "So it's kind of like fixing one hole and a leak comes out at another level. "In the interest of keeping the driver return decent, we should limit driver access to the market, but that might be detrimentally effective [for those using rideshare to supplement underemployment]."

Shadow Transport Minister Steve Minnikin said a ride-share licence cap should be considered. "The supply and demand for ride-booking drivers is determined by market forces," he said. "This issue should be considered by the Palaszczuk government through the post-implementation review period, currently underway." An Uber spokeswoman said the company listened to driver feedback and supported drivers to help them maximise their earnings. "When ride-sharing first came to Brisbane in 2014, no one could have imagined how the simple act of sharing a ride could be such a powerful economic engine," Uber said in a statement.

"Uber doesn’t set shifts or require minimum hours – people can simply log in or out when and where they choose, they are also completely free to drive for other ride-sharing apps. This is why thousands have signed up to drive with Uber. "The team at Uber work constantly to improve the driver app in response to feedback from partners while maintaining the main thing they love about it: the ability to start and stop work anytime they want. "We want driver partners to be successful and we work hard to share tips and information with driver partners about when and where the best times to drive are to maximise their earnings."