Kim67

Uber is fantastic here in Brisbane and Qld is rumoured to be following ACT and NSW in making it legal. It's cheaper than getting a taxi, quicker, more reliable. I quite often order one for my 17 year old daughter and her friends when they're too late for the last bus. I know the name of the driver, his rego and description of the car he's driving and can watch the progress of the journey on my phone. As soon as the driver is one minute from the pickup point, I phone my daughter and tell her he's arriving, I speak to her when she's first in the in car and make sure everything's okay and then go outside and meet the car when I can see it's a couple of minutes away. No problem if the kids don't have money on them too, gets billed straight to my card.

I have had so many bad experiences in taxis here and I refuse to take a Yellow Cab now, if I have to get a taxi, I bypass the Yellow Cabs on the rank and go for Black and White.

Pollyana

I;ve signed up for them, just not had occasion to use them yet. Might give them a go this weekend though working nights and no buses to get home. Couple of friends at work have started using them and can't praise them enough - the taxi service in Brisbane is so dire that they have to be an improvement.

Kim67

You'll love it. We went to a little local restaurant on Valentines day for dinner, only to discover a very rowdy function was happening on the verandah area. We ordered an Uber and were in Toowong sitting at our table within 20 minutes. It also asked when we got in the car if you wanted to play your own music on the journey - so connected to the car stereo via Uber app and had our own nice romantic music for the journey lol.

GarryP

Choice did a review and came up with Uber being more reliable than Taxis. Essentially this was down to taxi drivers being told the destination, and then binning off short hops - something you shouldn't see with an airport run.

https://www.choice.com.au/transport/...st#reliability

Oh, and with Uber you can see them coming on the map display.

The other factor is airports getting snooty about non-taxies - presumably they don't get their kick-back. However that more a problem for the Uber driver, and pickup rather than dropoff.

Pollyana

I was actually reading that Choice review overnight - we were discussing Uber at work, coincidentally. They certainly come out better than the taxi companies. I'll be interested to see how the airport works out when I go home in May, I imagine drop-off is easy, but negotiating a pick up point could be tricker as they can't use the ranks.

Kim67

It's pretty easy, they can see your location on the GPS when you order the Uber, you know the car they're in and the rego so when you see it coming, you can flag it down. They usually give you a call about a minute before they get there and you say, "yep, I'm at the pickup place and I've got purple luggage and a meerkat hanging out of my backpack". Easy peasy, both looking out for each other.

discobay

Great stories. I'll give them a try then.

Pollyana

Simples

Then said Meerkat can compile a report.....KompareTheUber.com ........

Pollyana

Personally, i haven't heard a bad review so I'd give them a go

Kim67

discobay

As I need the car at 5am tomorrow I thought that I could make an advance booking but apparently not. According to their app bookings are made on demand with the help of an estimate as to how long until you get picked up. This sounds risky. As of now the estimate is 7 minutes but if tomorrow morning it's 30 minutes?

Charismatic

My experience is that they are fine for getting home when you've had a few drinks (though obviously my experience is as an unattractive bloke) but I wouldn't trust them with business travel.

Bermudashorts

I used to work in Brisbane for a day or two most weeks. Always had taxi drivers that spoke English and never had any trouble booking or getting a taxi to the airport. But I did find there was a real shortage of taxis in the evening, if I needed one to go out somewhere say 7pm or so. Unlike in Sydney where taxis are in abundance at most times of the day.

Still I would never use Uber, because I prefer to be in an insured vehicle. It was not possible to get insurance for an Uber driver in Australia when I lived there, simply no products available, although I see that has changed since I left.

Pollyana

According to their website they must ave insurance (at least in brisbane - no idea about elsewhere).

I can only base my experience of taxis here on 13 years of living here. Maybe when I've been here long enough to know the place I will discover a little nest of English-speakng drivers and then I'll be happy

Your experience as a visitor has obviously (fortunately for you) been different.

Bermudashorts

Well a lot of my taxi journeys were to /from the airport, so perhaps there is a pocket of drives by the arrivals stand. And maybe just lucky with the return trips.

As for Uber and insurance, well they can say drivers must have insurance all they want. But at the time I left Australia in January 2015, there were no suitable insurance products on the market. This is something I am 100pc sure about as I worked in the field. I have just had a look and looks like there are products available now and I know it was being looked into it at the time I left.