# Allan Fels and Graeme Samuel face off in Uber wars



## MyRedUber (Dec 28, 2015)

http://www.afr.com/news/allan-fels-and-graeme-samuel-face-off-in-uber-wars-20160804-gqll71


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## MyRedUber (Dec 28, 2015)

I don't subscribe and I can read it.
Anyhow, here's the text:

Australian Financial Review

Aug 7 2016 at 1:17 PM
Updated Aug 7 2016 at 1:28 PM
by  Ben Potter 

Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairmen Graeme Samuel and Allan Fels are trading jibes over Victoria's belated effort to legalise "pre-booked" hire car firms like Uber and Lyft.

Mr Samuel, whose three-year term as Victorian Taxi Services Commissioner ended on July 31, told Radio 3AW host Neil Mitchell that Victoria was struggling with the legacy of a "flawed" report led by Professor Fels that completely ignored Uber, Lyft and GoCatch.

Professor Fels hit back, saying it was Mr Samuel who failed to bring Uber in from the cold and it was the fault of a Taxi Industry Inquiry report authored by him and competition expert David Cousins.

The threat of vigilante action by irate cabbies and limousine drivers has passed with the decision of most states to bow to consumer power and legalise ride sharing, but skirmishes in the Uber wars continue to break out.









Taxi drivers were left at a disadvantage by the Fels-Cousins approach to reform, says former Taxi Services Commissioner Graeme Samuel. Angela Wylie
In NSW, all-Tesla car hire firm Evoke Limousines said its expansion had come to a halt because the Baird government's Uber-friendly law made it harder for Evoke to access express transit and bus lanes, which are vital for its VIP customers.

The gradual deregulation of the Victorian taxi industry after the Fels-Cousins report uncapped the number of "rank and hail" taxi licences and made new licences available for $22,000 a year plus a CPI adjustment.

The measure slashed the value of Victorian perpetual taxi licences from a peak of $525,000 in 2011 to $280,000 within a few years. They are now worth about $150,000.

But Mr Samuel told T_he AFR_ this approach had left traditional taxi drivers with a financial burden that Uber drivers don't have to bear.









An Evoke Limousines driver in a Sydney bus lane. Evoke's Tesla limos need a hire car licence to access express bus and transit lanes. Jessica Hromas
"I think that the taxi industry has been put in a terribly uncompetitive position because the taxi operators start off the year with a deficit of $22,000 being the licence fee. How can you compete with an Uber driver who starts off with no deficit?" he said.

Hire car operators, who face an up-front fee of $40,000 in Victoria, also started behind scratch because the Fels-Cousins report failed to consider getting rid of licence fees entirely, Mr Samuel said.

Professor Fels, now on Uber's advisory board, said Mr Samuel had failed to bring Uber into the regulatory fold because the Andrews government couldn't swallow his big bang solution and last year excluded him from negotiations.

"Everyone knows he was totally ineffective and he is trying to blame it on my report. What he should have done was to be more creative in getting change instead of using our report as a scapegoat."

Professor Fels conceded his report hadn't mentioned Uber, Lyft or ridesharing but said it had devoted a chapter to a London limousine hire firm with most of the characteristics of Uber, including internet booking, credit card payments and maps.

He said his report had set out an "ideal" solution of removing all licence restrictions for taxis and hire cars but also suggested a more gradual approach - with compensation for licence owners - because governments shied away from reforms that crunched licence values. NSW legalised Uber but levies a charge on rides to pay for compensation to taxi licence owners.

Still, "it turns out our policy differences are not very big", Professor Fels said. Mr Samuel said the sooner ride sharing is legal the better, because Uber currently enjoys a monopoly courtesy of its willingness to break the law.

Read more: http://www.afr.com/news/allan-fels-...ff-in-uber-wars-20160804-gqll71#ixzz4GgrXqZC7 
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