Rideshare scam at SYD?

[Human]

My daughter flew MEL-SYD on Wednesday. When she arrived at Sydney she was told (presumably by someone from NSW Health) that she wouldn't be able to catch public transport because of the Victorian lockdown. Instead, she'd need to leave the airport by car and isolate at home until 11:59pm (the end of the lockdown).

So she went to the information desk and ask where the rideshare cars departed from. She was told "Rideshares aren't operating out of Sydney airport at the moment".

Wisely, she ignored that advice. She found the rideshare area, ordered an Ola, and caught the Ola car home.

My question: why was she told by the information desk staff that rideshares aren't operating? Was it an honest mistake (hard to see how)? If not, why was she not given the correct information?

 

[Must...Fly!]

I think the most obvious is that the person at the information desk completely misunderstood the term rideshare and maybe mistook it for coach shuttles or something

 

[moa999]

And I don't see what the Scam was

 

[DC3]

Maybe just call this thread “Rideshare at SYD”. I’m not seeing the scam.

 

[docjames]

If the implication is the “scam” is to direct you to more expensive / more revenue earning option(s) for the airport, then I’d choose stuff up over conspiracy.....

 

[Human]

If the implication is the “scam” is to direct you to more expensive / more revenue earning option(s) for the airport, then I’d choose stuff up over conspiracy.....

Yeah, on reflection, I think you and the above posters are probably right. My immediate reaction was to think that the staff member was receiving some sort of underhanded incentive to direct people away from rideshares. But I was probably too quick to jump to that conclusion!

 

[eric2011]

The only other reason to try to get people away from ride share would be to direct them to taxis and we all know Uber's / Ola's and taxis love each other like cats and dogs. It would not be unknown for people to solicit customers to take taxis