Uber is threatening to boot drivers with high cancellation rates and from Monday those who knock back more than a quarter of trips will no longer be eligible for incentives.
The rideshare company said that repeatedly accepting trips without intending to complete them was "fraudulent".
But Queensland drivers have told the ABC the Uber app is to blame because it does not show most of them an estimate of the fare until they have accepted the trip.
Michael Bradshaw, an Uber and DiDi driver in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, said passengers now thanked him for not cancelling.
"They're surprised when they can get an Uber straight away," Mr Bradshaw said.
"It's becoming like a bit of a cancel culture."
Mr Bradshaw said drivers tended to cancel low-value trips, which he considered to be anything below $15.
"If it's a low-value trip, that trip could go through 12 drivers," he said.
"If you're going to drive 32 kilometres to a pick-up and get $5, you're probably looking at like $10 an hour to do two of those an hour."
Paul Collins, a driver on the Sunshine Coast, said Uber could stop the cancellations by providing the fare estimate up-front, like Ola and DiDi.
"We do hear a lot from the riders that they think it is the driver's fault. The driver's really caught in the middle in this situation," he said.
"The amount of cancellations is definitely driving people out of the rideshare platform and back into taxis."
Moreton Bay man Aaron Ivory is one of them. He tried to book an Uber for his wife last Saturday night to get her home safely from a hen's party.
She needed to travel two suburbs, from Griffin to North Lakes, which takes about 13 minutes.
After the first two Uber drivers cancelled, Mr Ivory tried his luck a third time, only to find the price had more than tripled from $16 to $60.
"I couldn't justify paying that. That's scandalous. That's extortion," Mr Ivory said.
Mr Ivory said his wife's friend's mother ended up dropping her home.
"It really upsets me that my wife was in a position where she needed to get home safe and we can't do it with this service that's supposed to provide that," he said.
Queensland regulations require ride share companies to provide the fare estimate to the driver before they pick up the rider.
"There is flexibility for an authorised booking entity to decide how and when it provides booking record information to its drivers as long as the booking record is provided prior to the passenger entering the vehicle," a Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesperson said.
"Any questions on reliability should be referred to the entity providing the service, as it is their commercial responsibility to provide a quality service to customers."
Price surges not due to cancellations, Uber says
An Uber spokesperson denied that surge pricing, which the company calls "dynamic pricing", was triggered by driver cancellations.
"If someone has a ride cancelled and dynamic pricing has continued to rise in the meantime due to excessive demand, the individual experience would be a higher fare on the next offered trip," the spokesperson said.
Mr Ivory said he would never use Uber again.
"I've deleted my account … I'm going to go back to taxis," he said.
But taxis are not always a reliable alternative.
Taxi Council of Queensland chief executive Blair Davies said the industry was grappling with a driver shortage, which caused delays during busy periods.
"Demand is growing faster than we can get the drivers," Mr Davies said.
"We are always going to take a booking. It's just going to cause us to take a little longer to get the cab to the customer. So, wait times increase."
Uber is taking a carrot-and-stick approach to curbing driver cancellations.
Incentives at risk for drivers who regularly cancel
From Monday, drivers who cancel more than a quarter of trips will no longer be eligible for incentives.
After the ABC sent questions to Uber, the company emailed at least one driver with a cancellation rate "significantly higher" than their city's average.
The email warned cancelling an "unusually high number [of trips] on an ongoing basis" may be a breach of its rules.
"This may result in being unable to go online and receive trips using the Driver app," the email said.
"Your riders are also counting on you and, when you cancel, you can create a bad experience for them and your fellow drivers."
An Uber spokesperson said drivers who broke its guidelines could be banned.
"Repeatedly accepting trips without the intention to complete them, and subsequently cancelling these trips, is considered fraudulent behaviour and is a violation of Uber's Community Guidelines," the spokesperson said.
"It can result in driver-partners permanently losing access to the Uber app."
A DiDi spokesperson said drivers who repeatedly cancelled could have their account suspended.
Ola did not respond to the ABC's questions before deadline.
