After three years of painful industry reform, Victoria's taxi drivers are better trained and better behaved, but there are fewer of them and those in the job have been finding work harder to come by.
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Meanwhile, more than 200 Uber drivers have been fined for operating an unlicensed vehicle, Victoria's taxi regulator reveals in its annual report, even as it admits the rogue ride-sharing service is here to stay.
The Taxi Services Commission's annual report gives a very mixed diagnosis of the health of the industry - better for passengers, but with few signs cabbies and cab owners are enjoying the fruits of reform.
More than 1750 drivers had passed the knowledge test by the end of June - more than 10 per cent of drivers on the road.
And the number of complaints about taxis tumbled 24.5 per cent in 2014-15, the report shows, from 4446 to 3569. Some of the biggest areas of improvement were complaints against driver conduct (down from 1230 to 830) and fare charging and payment (down from 928 to 453).
On payments, the report estimates that the decision to force the industry to slash the credit card surcharge from 10 per cent to 5 per cent of the fare has saved consumers $13 million.
But one of the key indicators of industry health, the taxi occupancy rate, declined in 2014-15. The taxi occupancy rate is the percentage of time that a taxi spends carrying a paying passenger, relative to the total time it is available for hire.
It fell three percentage points to 32 per cent in December, the busiest month of the year for cabs, and two points to 28.4 per cent in June, the quietest month.
The decline has coincided with the addition of more than 600 new taxi licences into the market and the rapid rise of Uber, the unregulated ride-booking service.
Before the reform, taxi licences were perpetual and valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, but can now be leased for $22,000 a year.
Owner-driver Abbas Abbas was one of the first cabbies in Melbourne to lease a $22,000 annual licence from the government when they became available last year, but says he did so without any inkling he would soon be competing with Uber.
"When we took up the plates there was no mention of Uber, nobody saw it coming," Mr Abbas said.
Mr Abbas said he worked a 15-hour shift on a recent Saturday for $550 in fares. "It's hardship," he said.
Bruce Tootell, also an owner/driver and single licence holder, agreed reforms such as the knowledge had been a win for passengers, but said taxi businesses had lost out.
"The reforms, in my opinion, they wrecked the industry," Mr Tootell said. "It's been the worst year in cabs' history - too many taxis idly sitting around, joining massive queues, man hours wasted."
The report notes a "sharp rise in persons operating vehicles without the proper licensing authority, primarily through ridesharing", and says more than 200 penalty infringement notices were issued. Penalties range from $1730 to $1820.
But Taxi Services Commission Victoria acting chief executive James Holyman also conceded ridesharing is almost certainly here to stay.
"With digital mobility allowing more people to connect and engage across media platforms, the emergence of ride-sharing services and new vehicle technology are also changing the way consumers view a vehicle-for-hire transport experience," Mr Holyman wrote.
It's not a stance Mr Abbas agrees with.
"Why do they allow it [Uber] to operate? Why couldn't they say, 'OK we need to regulate it first, and then you can start working'?"
