The current licence expires on 30 September but Uber has 21 days to appeal and can continue to operate until that process expires.
QuoteThe current licence expires on 30 September but Uber has 21 days to appeal and can continue to operate until that process expires.
... (more so in London, where black cabs are extremely pricey)...And even more so when they short change you. When I next need a taxi in London it won't be a black cab.
If they don't launch their appeal before the current license expires on September 30th then they'll have to stop operating on that date (it's not clear what time on that date the license expires).
do agree that London's black cabs have a lot of lobbying power and can be dodgy as fuck.
United Private Hire Drivers, which says it has 1,200 members and organised a go-slow protest blocking roads in the capital in November last year, is calling on Transport for London to insist Uber and other minicab drivers are guaranteed basic employment rights, including the minimum wage and holiday pay, under the terms of its new five-year licence.
It's not a ban. Uber are not, in the opinion of the licencing authority, meeting the requirements to be allowed a licence to operate. Those requirements being around safeguarding. This is after having already having been given a 4 month extension to allow them to get their house in order, and still with an option to appeal.
After all that time, if they cannot still meet the standards that other operators are expected to, then why should they be given a license to operate?
Driver has his say:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/23/over-uber-london-driver-fares-rivals-work
I hope this link is good beyond the paywall.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/when-the-penny-drops-on-bodega-it-will-too-late-to-save-local-shops-2rxnmt58k?shareToken=8d2c9b60d55c5d57fccf801295e87184
However, the company said it disabled the "dynamic pricing" as soon as it was aware of the incident, in the area affected around London Bridge and then across central London.
Uber has said it will refund the rides of anyone who used the app in the area.
...
"As soon as we heard about the incident we immediately suspended dynamic pricing all around the area of the attacks - and shortly afterwards across the whole of central London - just as we did following the attacks in Manchester and Westminster.
"We are also ensuring all rides from around the affected area were free of charge. Our team is also working with the Metropolitan Police to help them get any footage from drivers who were in the area at the time.”
Uber's response to the announcement has not been to accept responsibility for it's own fate but instead it has tried to mobilise sympathy for all those drivers who will be out of work.
Yet not that long ago Uber was telling an employment tribunal that drivers were not employed by Uber and therefore were not eligible for sick pay, pensions or paid holidays. Go figure.
Uberexit?
Quotedo agree that London's black cabs have a lot of lobbying power and can be dodgy as fuck.
As do York cabs.
However, why shouldn't Saddiq Khan stand up to a corporation in a bid to get conditions for its workers improved?
(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9fecd0145daddd05480414f4159fffccf3fc0030/0_74_4368_2621/master/4368.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=5abcecb783088807cb0ee508e99e9fef)
They were warned, May 2017:QuoteUnited Private Hire Drivers, which says it has 1,200 members and organised a go-slow protest blocking roads in the capital in November last year, is calling on Transport for London to insist Uber and other minicab drivers are guaranteed basic employment rights, including the minimum wage and holiday pay, under the terms of its new five-year licence.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/09/uber-licence-drivers-gmb-transport-for-london (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/09/uber-licence-drivers-gmb-transport-for-london)
Boris Johnson siding with an American Corporation? You bet he would.
I don't like Uber's shared-responsibility no-shared-liability model, exploitation of employees or lack of tax paying model amongst other things, but I'm seeing discussions that suggest banning them is racialised in that Uber is banned whereas Amazon and other orgs which are dodgy as fuck too aren't treated in the same way and that People of Colour rely on Uber because other services WON'T serve them and their communities in the same way (I know many black folk who say standard cabs won't stop for them, and other minicabs won't come to certain areas).Banning Uber is racialised? Very odd. Isn't taxi driving, in big cities which draw people from all over the world, like London, traditionally a recent immigrant job? Certainly in Bristol many, maybe even most, taxi drivers are Somali and Sudanese refugees.
https://twitter.com/sunnysingh_n6/status/911171124616138752
I do agree that London's black cabs have a lot of lobbying power and can be dodgy as fuck.
Somewhere else I was reading that to do the Knowledge you need money, education, time etc which many folk who work for Uber etc don't have.
I'd love to see some of the good things about Uber used without the nasty horrible bits cos I'm sure that could be done well. Same for things like AirB&B, Deliveroo etc.
I hope this link is good beyond the paywall.The link works but I'm struggling to see the connection with Uber other than their Silicon Valley origins. Are you considering 'local taxis' to be a local service? Uber are disrupting employment practices, in as far as I can see a way already done by many other 'non employers', but the link with the service as experienced by the passenger is not clear.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/when-the-penny-drops-on-bodega-it-will-too-late-to-save-local-shops-2rxnmt58k?shareToken=8d2c9b60d55c5d57fccf801295e87184
I'm not quite sure why many users claim Uber is safer than a trad minicab - is this to do with the way other people can track your progress on the app?
As for safety checks on drivers and such, the last time I used a taxi, which was last summer, it was a local company I'd used before and the driver they sent was in his own car, no taxi plates, no meter.
… it's just ridiculous to go backwards and not use current technology for booking and managing minicab use. Because that's all Uber is, basically. It's just a big minicab service that happens to use highly efficient systems.
Some new legislation may be needed to improve the rights and earnings of the pseudo-self-employed in general.
The long term subcontracting pretence instead of direct employment is being used to exploit some of the most vulnerable to the benefit of the unwitting middle class.
It wasn't a minicab – I'm not sure that minicabs as such even exist outside London – just a phoned for in advance taxi, nor was the fare agreed in advance either, though it seemed reasonable. I reckon what happened is they just ran out of cover so got old Trev, you know the bloke who used to work for us a couple of years ago, to do the Sunday morning pick up.
What options do you see? Self-driving cars are twenty years away despite hysteria to the contrary.
Interesting article about how Uber operates:
https://www.londonreconnections.com/2017/understanding-uber-not-app/ (https://www.londonreconnections.com/2017/understanding-uber-not-app/)
Ok, if safety needs to be improved, then improve it. They will not get away with throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There will be massive demonstrations of all sorts and Kahn hopefully will eventually resign. He'll never be re-elected anyway. I'm embarrassed that I voted for him. I must have been ignorant on his policies. My mother (with generally opposite political views from myself) says this would never have happened under Boris, and she's right.
Yes, he probably gets quite angry if you spell his surname wrong.What, on an internet forum about cycling? I think that's unlikely to trouble him greatly.
This setup may seem unwieldy, but it is deliberate. In part, it is what has allowed Uber to blur the boundary between being a ‘pre-booked’ service and ‘plying-for-hire’ (a difference we explored when we last looked at the London taxi trade back in 2015).In that respect at least, good for Uber. Probably. The distinction is so artificial and created by rather than reflected in regulations. In most of the world a taxi is a taxi, subject to the same regulations and using the same fares whether you pick it up in the street or call for it to come to you.
Yes, he probably gets quite angry if you spell his surname wrong.What, on an internet forum about cycling? I think that's unlikely to trouble him greatly.
;DYes, he probably gets quite angry if you spell his surname wrong.What, on an internet forum about cycling? I think that's unlikely to trouble him greatly.
Jesus, this group is a tough crowd. That's the best fucking joke I can do before 8am.
(https://media.tenor.com/images/c5d137089a29c826ef5b14d2327721de/tenor.gif)Looks like Ullrich to me.
OK, here's a fucking stupid question. I don't live in that london, and haven't followed the history of all this, but that's no excuse - feel free to kick me. If you like telling people on the internet just how fucking stupid their question is, roll-up:
Why didn't Ye Grand Olde Guild of Black Cabbes set-up app-based booking 10 years ago?
<fx:turns off computer and runs>
Why didn't Ye Grand Olde Guild of Black Cabbes set-up app-based booking 10 years ago?
Uber haven't had to face up to a licensing authority with this much power and financial backup before,Really?
Uber haven't had to face up to a licensing authority with this much power and financial backup before,Really?
http://www.politico.eu/article/uber-wins-appeal-against-ban-in-italy/ (http://www.politico.eu/article/uber-wins-appeal-against-ban-in-italy/)
That's a fairly major licensing authority - an entire country.
Would they jack up the prices as much as current black cab rates? I doubt that's possible.I've had an uber taxi get lost in Leeds (his satnav took him miles out of the way, had to suggest a route for him back into the city), and in London. The satnav tried to send him down a cycle path, had to manually talk him round the route into battersea park.
I'd agree with some of criticisms of their business and taxation practices, but that's for governments to enforce. Assuming businesses will volunteer to pay more tax is a highway to nowhere. I'd also agree that Uber must meet the expected standards. But then I'd rather black cabs lost their special status too.
Good point about the drivers, I've never had a bad experience. And more importantly never had to listen to LBC.
Would they jack up the prices as much as current black cab rates? I doubt that's possible.
I've just checked an Uber price for the last taxi journey I did. Their estimate is £8-£11 for UberX or £11-£15 for UberXL and UberExec. I paid £7 with a local firm (who sent an unmarked car/driver... ).Would they jack up the prices as much as current black cab rates? I doubt that's possible.I've had an uber taxi get lost in Leeds (his satnav took him miles out of the way, had to suggest a route for him back into the city), and in London. The satnav tried to send him down a cycle path, had to manually talk him round the route into battersea park.
I'd agree with some of criticisms of their business and taxation practices, but that's for governments to enforce. Assuming businesses will volunteer to pay more tax is a highway to nowhere. I'd also agree that Uber must meet the expected standards. But then I'd rather black cabs lost their special status too.
Good point about the drivers, I've never had a bad experience. And more importantly never had to listen to LBC.
The black cabs are just too expensive for their own good. We all know that.
Uber are operating in York and anecdote says they are charging as much as the local minicab firms.
But let's not forget their licence in London has been rejected for delays in reporting criminal allegations against their drivers to the police
, possible fiddling of medical certificates
and alleged regulatory interference, not anything to do with fares.
So can Uber afford to become ethical? Its growth to date has been so costly that even after the raft of regulations it has managed to sidestep, and measures forcing down the income of its drivers, it is losing billions every year. In a properly regulated market, in which Uber has to give its drivers appropriate employment protections, and passengers the safeguards they need, its goal of apparently aping Amazon becomes even harder.http://www.citymetric.com/business/uber-trying-be-amazon-it-ll-fail-3374
If Uber can achieve market dominance before it runs out of funding, the inefficiencies in its model cease to matter. Society will simply have to carry the cost of higher fares and lower driver wages.
If it fails to achieve near monopoly status and has to continue to compete against local firms, in my view it has little hope of ever repaying its investors. For customers that travel to different cities frequently, Uber’s scale gives them a clear edge. For everyone else, is an app slightly shinier than its competitors’ clones enough to outweigh the higher fares that should come with Uber’s model?
Should Uber ultimately fail, it would open up the possibility of a taxi company fit for the 21st century: one that harnesses the possibilities of digital technologies not to enrich venture capital, but drivers themselves, in the form of cooperatives like the one currently developing in the absence of Uber in Austin, Texas.