IPART
A survey released today by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) indicates that use of rideshare services in NSW in 2019 grew compared to 2018, but the growth in rideshare use appears to be levelling off.
IPART Chair Dr Paul Paterson said, "In our first survey in 2012 we didn't even ask about rideshare, as no services were operating in NSW."
"By 2014, 11% of Sydneysiders said they had used a rideshare service in the previous 6 months, and in the five years since then, that has increased to more than 50%. That rapid growth has started to level off as more people get comfortable with the range of choices that are available for point to point transport."
For the first time in the history of the survey, more Sydneysiders reported that they had used rideshare services such as Uber, Ola, or Bolt than said they had used traditional taxi services.
Demand for traditional taxi services remained strong, with 49% of surveyed Sydneysiders saying they had caught a taxi at least once in the 6 months prior to being surveyed, compared to 52% in 2018 and 51% in 2017.
In 2019, 51% of surveyed Sydneysiders said they had used rideshare at least once in the previous 6 months, up from 48% in 2018 and 36% in 2017.
"This indicates that there is healthy competition in the market for point to point transport services in Sydney," Dr Paterson said.
The use of rideshare in urban areas outside Sydney (Newcastle, Wollongong, Gosford and Wyong) stayed stable at just under 30% between 2018 and 2019. Taxi use remains more widespread than rideshare use outside Sydney.
The survey also found a small decrease in the use of limousines and other hire vehicles (car and driver) in Sydney and other urban areas from 13% in 2018 to 10% in 2019.
The survey asks questions about perceptions of point to point transport services as well as use. Perceptions of taxis generally improved in 2019 compared to 2018.
Perceptions of safety, navigation and driver skills are more positive for taxis than rideshare, but perceptions of rideshare continue to be more positive than taxis in terms of value for money, waiting times and availability.
The survey was undertaken in November 2019 with representative population samples in Sydney, other urban areas and country areas in NSW. A fact sheet and the full survey report are available on IPART's website, www.ipart.nsw.gov.au
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