IPART’s annual transport survey has shown a significant fall in the use of taxis and ride share services last year.

The drop in the use of taxis was higher than that for rideshare in both regional and urban areas.

In Sydney, the percentage of respondents reporting using a taxi in the previous 6 months fell from 49% in 2019 to just 31% in 2020. During the same period rideshare use fell from 51% to 44%.

“COVID-19 has clearly had a major impact on all transport services with lockdowns, venue restrictions and concerns about crowds,” said Acting Tribunal member Mike Smart.

“In 2019, we saw rideshare use overtaking traditional taxi services in Sydney. This trend continued in 2020 with more Sydneysiders reporting they had used rideshare than taxis”, said Mr Smart.

In 2020, rideshare use also overtook traditional taxi use in other urban areas (Newcastle, Wollongong, Gosford and Wyong), although both forms of transport had lower use than in 2019.

In regional areas, taxi use dropped from 34% to 21% between 2019 and 2020, while rideshare dropped from 14% to 12%.

Overall satisfaction rates for taxis and rideshare remained strong in 2020.

Rideshare continued to outperform taxis on perceptions of fares, waiting times and overall trip satisfaction in Sydney and other urban areas. However, satisfaction with taxis remained stronger than rideshare in the rest of NSW.

Taxis were viewed more positively than rideshare in terms of perceptions of safety. However, perceptions of value for money were more positive for rideshare than taxis.

The survey was undertaken in November 2020 with representative population samples across NSW.  An information paper and the full survey report are available on IPART’s website, www.ipart.nsw.gov.au