Ridesharing services including those provided by Uber, Inc. are to be made fully legal in Canberra, Australia’s capital city.

Under new regulations announced by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Chief Minister Andrew Barr Wednesday local time, ridesharing services will be able to register to operate in the city as of October 30.

Under the scheme, Uber drivers will need to be accredited and insured, with accreditation including the need to undergo similar checks that taxi drivers go through, such as criminal history and driver history checks, along with vehicles being inspected for safety.

It’s not clear exactly how much Uber licensing will cost under the scheme, however the Government has announced radical changes to taxi licensing at the same time, with taxi licence fees to be reduced from AU$20,000 ($14,000) to AU$10,000 ($7,000) from October 30, and then AU$5,000 a year later.

Hire car fees will be slashed from AU$4,600 ($3,225) to AU$100 ($70) a year.

Existing taxis will be able to utilize Uber-like apps for bookings, however conversely Uber drivers will be strictly prohibited from collecting passengers at traditional taxi ranks or stop in taxi, bus or loading zones.

The move comes as taxi drivers in multiple Australian States and the ACT have held stop-work meetings and protests over the operation of Uber in respective state capitals, along with a completely rubbish scare campaign in legacy media that makes spurious claims such as UberX is a safety risk, which is deeply ironic given the general state of the mostly non-English speaking, disgusting, overcharging, and at times rapey Australian taxi industry.

Decent model

The model implemented by the ACT has been hailed by Uber as a great example for how other Australian states, let alone many of the country’s Uber currently operates in, can license the service yet at the same time cater to concerns put forward by existing taxi operators who are seeing their archaic, dated monopolies disrupted by the likes of Uber.

“We’ve been calling for over a year now for regulations to be put in place… we expect to be regulated and we want to see regulations that enshrine safety standards, vehicle inspections, insurance,” Uber Australia’s general manager David Rohrsheim.

“We’ve been bringing examples of that from other parts of the world . Unfortunately Australia’s been pretty slow with it, but Canberra has set the tone we hope spreads across Australia.”

Victoria is expected to be the next Australian state to legalize Uber, with Western Australia also considering a similar move.

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