He also said a fare war in the Illawarra was unlikely – at least in the short term.

Rideshare company Go Buggy will launch a service in Wollongong from Wednesday next week.

Speaking on behalf of Wollongong Radio Cabs, NSW Taxi Council CEO Roy Wakelin-King said the co-operative would be focusing on what it does rather than any rival.

“It doesn’t matter who the competitor is at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we provide good reliable, safe and affordable taxi services so that members of the public who want to catch a point to point service choose us first,” Mr Wakelin-King said.

“That’s the nature of the competitive landscape that we’re in and so from our perspective we need to make sure that we provide that service.”

The Taxi Council CEO said at present there wasn’t the scope for taxis to cut their fares in order to compete with a rival.

“The first thing we need to understand is at the moment our fares are fixed by way of regulation, therefore this is another area where we are at a disadvantage.” Mr Wakelin-King said.

“This is intended to be amended as part of the point to point transport reforms, where we have greater flexibility in terms of what fares we can charge.

“We need to make sure that when we do have that flexibility we provide an affordable price to provide good, reliable quality services to our customers.”

Mr Wakelin-King said it was also important to ensure that government regulation created a “level playing field” for all competitors – both taxis and rideshare providers.

He cited the difference in green slip rates as a key inequity, where taxi owners pay up to 10 times as much as rideshare drivers, who use their private vehicles.

“There’s an inequity in insurance costs between us and ridesharing type providers,” Mr Wakelin-King said.

“However, I’m pleased to say the NSW government has commenced a reform process that should correct some of those inequities on CTP insurance.

“We welcome those, but we need to see them implemented and we hope that will occur later this year.”