Consumer advocacy group CHOICE has released a study claiming that Sydney taxis are 40 per cent more expensive than UberX on average.

UPDATE: The taxi industry has responded to CHOICE’s report. 

UberX, the ride sharing app which is the most talked about brand on social media, has been in battle with taxi industries throughout the world. To add fuel to the fire, CHOICE conducted a comparative survey between UberX and Sydney taxis. The survey compared price, overall service, speed of pick up and safety.

CHOICE conducted a total of 56 trips across Sydney- 28 UberX rides and 28 licensed taxis rides- both travelling to and from the same place. CHOICE found:

• UberX was cheaper than a taxi around nine times out of 10. Taxis were 40 per cent more expensive than UberX on average.
• On the three occasions UberX was more expensive, it wasn’t by much – and it was only when surge pricing was in place.
• Of the 28 UberX rides, CHOICE encountered surge pricing four times.
• Taxis showed up quicker on average. This, however, was due to the convenience of hailing one off the street; when taxis were booked they tended to take longer to show up than UberX. There were also two times taxis didn’t show up at all, pointing to an issue with reliability.
• On one occasion out of 28, there was no UberX available (the rider caught the next cheapest available option, UberTaxi).
• Taxis scored an average of 6.7 for the overall experience while Uber scored an average of 8.3.