Uber gets thousands of applications to be Canberra drivers

Hundreds of people attended a driver information session about the ride-sharing company at the Novotel Hotel on Thursday night.

Uber's general manager David Rohrsheim said almost 20,000 people had already opened the Uber application on their smartphones in Canberra, despite the service not being expected to arrive until at least October.

Uber has already received more than 3000 applications for driver positions in the capital.

An Uber spokesman said the number of applications was surprising, given there were only 4000 registered drivers in Sydney and 15,000 nationwide.

Experience in other Australian cities had shown there was no standard Uber driver, with mothers, students and full-time workers likely to pick up passengers, he said.

Craig Simek, a former taxi driver, said the ride-sharing service was an attractive prospect given the low overheads and flexible hours.

"The taxi industry is archaic and has been in need of a shake-up for a long time," he said.

But not everyone is excited about the role Uber may play in the territory.

Canberra Taxi Industry Association chairman John McKeough has said he is concerned about the Uber's impact on the market.

"Some people think taxi owners are millionaires but the reality is well over 90 per cent of them are individual owners," he said.

"Since the beginning of 2014, the number of jobs per car has increased by two a day and if Uber comes along they will likely take those jobs.

"Taxi people are pretty dogged and they are just hanging on, but if they are not making money then that is a different story," he said.

In June, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the government would consider transition plans to help the taxi industry adjust to the arrival of Uber.

The government is expected to publish the findings of an independent review of Canberra's taxi industry within weeks.

One of only a handful of women at the information session, Amal Gindi said she wasn't worried about the nature of the work.

"The ACT is one of the safest areas. I have my own business and work from home so this is a way of getting out of the house while earning extra income," she said.

Another Canberran at the event, Chris Michaels, was interested in becoming a driver for the "extra pocket money", while Gao Li said she had heard good things about the company.

Preet Kang was just planning on seeing how it went, while Leo Leong said the hours would complement his current job.

Masood Tahar, 63, was interested in the flexible nature of the work. "At my age, it's good," he said.