Strong results a boon for Uber

Rideshare passenger numbers for first six months top 50,000 mark

TAXI industry nemesis Uber is in Cairns for the long haul following a stellar introduction to the Far North market.

The controversial ridesharing company on Saturday marked six months since it launched in Cairns.

According to Uber, more than 50,000 different riders from 66 countries have used the service in Cairns since March 16.

“We’ve been blown away by the community response in our first six months,” said Uber’s Queensland state manager Alex Golden. “Since launch we’ve seen hundreds of new drivers sign up to make money driving on their own schedule, and we’d encourage more to do so as we head into the busy summer season.”

According to Uber, there are now more than 350 active drivers in Cairns, 40 per cent of whom work fewer than 10 hours every week.

The company’s food delivery service UberEATS also started in Cairns in recent weeks. It comes about 12 months after the company was legalised in Queensland, to the dismay of taxi operators statewide.

Tougher restrictions were handed down on Uber earlier this year, but the taxi industry still believes it is on the wrong end of an unfair playing field.

Cairns Taxis chief executive Bob Roberts said the full extent of Uber’s impact on the local taxi industry remained unclear.

“Our bookings are lower now than this time last year. It would partly be due to Uber, but there would be other reasons as well,” he said.

“There has been an impact, but it hasn’t been major in terms of our numbers.”

Mr Roberts said the number of drivers who had left Cairns Taxis to join Uber over the past six months was “not significant”. While the ride-sharing company appears to have made roots in Cairns, he said the local taxi industry was also going nowhere.

“We would still like to see a levelling out of the playing field, but until that happens we will continue to provide a good service to customers,” he said.