Rideshare giant Uber has been fined $250,000 in NSW for letting Uber Eats drivers without Australian licences take passengers.
The company pleaded guilty to 57 point to point transport offences at Sydney Local Court earlier this month, where a magistrate said while imposing the fine that deterrence was critical to ensuring public safety.
The NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner said Uber had reported the breaches, which involved offering more than 100 passenger trips to 57 food delivery drivers.
Investigations then revealed that the drivers did not meet the necessary standards for providing passenger services, including insufficient Australian driving experience or not holding an Australian driver’s licence.
Commissioner Anthony Wing said the fine sent a clear message to rideshare operators, and that his office would continue to monitor Uber.
“This outcome reinforces the importance of compliance with safety standards. These laws exist to protect passengers. Service providers must ensure only eligible drivers are booked to provide passenger services, ” he said.
“My aim as the regulator is to keep people safe. My team proactively monitors what is happening on the ground through audits, investigations and on-street operations.”
“NSW has strong laws in place to protect passengers, and every provider—regardless of size—must comply with them. I will take action when a company fails to meet their legal obligations. All passengers should be able to trust that every ride is a safe ride.”
Uber said in a statement that it had a “strong track record” when it came to safety, and that it took its “obligation to regulatory compliance seriously”.
“We accept responsibility for these two isolated incidents in 2022, which we fixed promptly upon becoming aware of the issue,” it said.
“Since then, we have made additional improvements to our technology and processes to help prevent this from happening again.”
Header image: Uber’s pickup zone at Sydney Airport (Sydney Airport).
