Uber shocked by NSW Government's suspension notices to 40 Sydney drivers

Uber was “shocked” by the suspension notice for 40 drivers put forward by the Roads and Maritime Services on Monday, which the company claimed were given without any “due process.” It is now leading a legal inquiry to reverse the decision of suspension, with questions being raised as to who controls the NSW government: the people or the taxi association.

As many as 40 UberX licences were put on suspension notice by the RMS NSW after the drivers of the ride-sharing service were allegedly caught using private vehicles while working for the popular app Uber.

The suspended vehicles would be categorised as unregistered and fined if they were to be found on the street. The news of the crackdown comes after a report published by Choice, which revealed that Uber rides are as safe as taxis and had even outperformed the latter in terms of reliability and price. With the sudden suspension, the RMS has been subjected to criticism by security and monitoring group NRMA.

The director of safety and compliance at the NSW RMS, Peter Wells, said Uber was illegal and the government had to ensure compliance with regulations. “The suspension notices have been issued to registered owners of vehicles found to be operating a privately registered vehicle for business purposes,” he added. However, RMS has not elaborated about the ways they would use to track down the suspended cars.

Wells confirmed that the drivers of suspended UberX’s would be not allowed to use their assigned vehicles for the next three months, effective from Sept. 30, and would each face a fine of up to AU$2,200 for the offence.

While Uber has stated before that it allows its drivers to earn extra income by offering better services to the people, and gives car owners an opportunity to get involved in these small businesses, the escalating profit of the company has agitated the taxi industry, which has hit back and accused Uber of avoiding regulatory fines and being unsafe.

“Taxis are complying with excessive regulation, while ride-sharing networks are not. Ride-sharing has proven that it is currently more cost effective to operate illegally than to comply with state regulation,” said Stuart Overell of Combined Communications Network, Australia’s largest taxi network.

At present, the NSW Government is trying to mitigate the crisis by assigning an independent task force to lead the investigation that is to be completed by October.

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