Melbourne taxi drivers just can’t come to terms with Uber: Blockade on Bolte Bridge

Right across Australia State governments have been updating their passenger transport regulations to allow for new and innovative services like Uber.  Victoria is one such state, having made the decision to essentially legalise Uber in August last year.  However taxi drivers are still not happy, this morning conducting a rolling protest blocking Melbourne’s peak hour traffic.

Now I’m no expert, but there’s certainly a good way to get TV news coverage for your concern: disrupt the general public.  At the same time, there’s a great way to annoy the general public: disrupt the general public.

Taxi drivers and more specifically the licence plate owners are upset by the governments planned compensation, the argument being these licence plate owners paid big dollars and in many cases feel their licence place is their superannuation investment.

I feel desperately for those who have these investments, but I think with hindsight placing all your investment into one item like this is poor financial planning.

Drivers today took to the major highways in Melbourne, slowing traffic to a crawl before moving into the city and driving at 5km an hour through the city.

One comment on the Channel 7 Facebook live stream of the protest blockade stood out to me today:

I don’t remember Video store owners protesting streaming services?

Tough one for the cabbies, who in many cases are not the affected owners.  Worse if the Police actually cracked down on them this morning – you know, driving slow is actually an offence?

Here it is:

Unreasonably obstructing drivers or pedestrians

A driver must not unreasonably obstruct the path of another driver or a pedestrian.

• Penalty:     2 penalty units.