It concluded that ride-sharing service UberX, which is illegal under the NSW Passenger Transport Act, was safe, reliable and cost effective. Taxi drivers protested against Uber at NSW State Parliament in September. Credit:Daniel Munoz "When we looked at a comparative between UberX and the taxi industry on things like checks, record of trip, GPS tracking, rating system and insurance, UberX performed very well, as did the taxi industry," said Choice's Tom Godfrey. "The taxi industry is running an almighty scare campaign. But what we need to do is to stand back and have a level-headed approach to any regulations required, with consumers interests firmly at the centre." The NSW Taxi Council said it stood by its slogan and that Choice had compared a legal industry, with an illegal and unregulated one.

"[We] believe it is in the consumer's interest to make them aware that if they get into a private illegal ride-sharing vehicle with a private driver where there are no government-backed checks for safety and security; it is akin to hitch-hiking," it said. Ride sharing service Uber is "pleased to partner" with the VRC to help transport racegoers. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Combined Communications Network, Australia's largest taxi booking and dispatch service provider, said Choice's research was flawed. It said many safety features were not obvious to a passenger. "This includes tamper-proof, always-on GPS to constantly track the whereabouts of taxis, as well as permanently powered, fire resistant security cameras to capture activity inside and outside a taxi," said its chief operating officer Stuart Overell. "On the other hand, ride-sharing services use the GPS tracking from phones, which is a vulnerable technology given a phone can be discarded or simply switched off – drivers, and their passengers, can simply fall off the radar at a touch of a button."

Choice found UberX was cheaper than a taxi about nine times out of 10. It also said taxis were 40 per cent more expensive on average. On three occasions, UberX was an average of 6 per cent more expensive because of surge pricing. Of the 28 UberX rides, Choice encountered surge pricing four times. It found taxis showed up quicker on average, largely because they could be hailed off the street. "However, when taxis were booked they tended to take longer to show up than UberX. There were also two times taxis didn't show up at all, pointing to the well-known issue across the industry around reliability," said Choice's campaigns director, Matt Levey. "Part of the problem may be that taxi drivers are told the passenger's destination, which may make short trips less attractive. Uber drivers on the other hand aren't given your destination until they turn up."

Michael Jools, president of the Australian Taxi Drivers Association, conceded the taxi booking process was flawed. "The reliability of a booked service is vastly improved when a confirmation takes place between the accepting driver and the passenger," he said. "The ATDA believes that such confirmation should occur with taxis, and that it is a fault of the taxi networks not to have such procedures. Fix that up," he said. Choice released the findings ahead of the taskforce delivering its recommendations to the Government in late October. "The point of regulating should be to protect consumers and encourage competition in the market, not to protect one particular business from its competitors," said Mr Levey.

Uber welcomed Choice's findings and called for sensible ride-sharing regulations to be implemented soon. "We look forward to getting on with providing safe, affordable and reliable rides to over a million Australians, and continuing our efforts to extend economic opportunities on the UberX platform to more Australian communities, including our most recent partnership with Enabled Employment," a spokesperson said.