Katter's Australian Party MPs have introduced a bill which could see ride-sharing drivers who are caught three times working for a service such as Uber, lose their licence. Photo: Michelle Smith
Uber has been blocking the phones of known transport department inspectors in an effort to dodge fines from the Queensland Government, a parliamentary committee has heard.
The Katter's Australian Party MPs have introduced a bill which, if it won the support of a major party and the cross bench, could see ride-sharing drivers who are caught three times working for a service such as Uber, lose their licence.
The former LNP government instigated a cease and desist order against the company and its drivers, but despite nearly $2 million in fines, has been unable to stop it operating.
The acting director of the Department of Transport and Main Roads for taxis and limousines Noela Cerutti told a committee reviewing the Katter bill that Uber had "thwarted" its attempts at a compliance crackdown.
Previously, transport inspectors fined Uber drivers by using the app to book a driver.
Ms Cerutti said it was no longer that simple.
"Covert actions of booking an Uber driver have actually been hampered recently by Uber themselves," she said.
"They now can, with their technology, recognise not only a sim card, but the handset.
"...So that then is able, that phone and that sim card, to actually connect with their app in the future.
"So we've gone through hundreds of phones trying to catch the next driver in doing the wrong thing.
"They have also now changed their customer application process.
"So what used to happen in the past, we would buy visa cards, so we would use those visa that aren't actually allocated as a person and you would go on and book an Uber driver.
"Now they want all your personal details so you can actually become a customer of Uber.
"We've checked...the transport Inspectors aren't able to use a false name, they have to, in the line of their duty, provide accurate information, so they aren't willing to provide their personal card to actually do the covert investigations any more.
"We have been thwarted in our compliance."
The review into the Katter bill comes as the government ordered a review into the state's taxi industry and Uber, which is due to return in August next year.
Taxi drivers have continued to protest against the service, with another gathering due outside parliament on Wednesday.
An Uber spokesman said: "Nobody should be penalised for providing safe and reliable rides in their own car, in their own city.
"There are currently no regulations for ridesharing and, despite the scaremongering rhetoric of the taxi council, no court in Australia has determined that ridesharing is illegal," he said.
"The government has announced a review of the point to point industry and we look forward to seeing sensible, safety-based ridesharing regulations in place as soon as possible."
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