Motors Uber loses licence to operate

The title says it all really but i wondered what people think of Uber losing it's licence to operate in London, they have 21 days to appeal so nothings going to change yet but if it's upheld i guess it's going to be rather disruptive to some people who depend on Uber.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41358640

Thoughts, good, bad?

 

Gonna be a lot of cheap second hand Priuses knocking around shortly...

 

Uber is a very useful service, but a horrible company, so hopefully this forces them to address some of their dodgier business practices.

 

They will appeal, and hard, so don't expect Uber to go away instantly.

It wouldn't surprise me if TFL don't actually expect or want to get rid of Uber. Instead they are using licence revocation as leverage against them regarding wages and vetting. Uber of course won't want to set a president though.

From a personal point of view I understand the issues with Uber, but I know there has been times where a family member has found Uber to be a real safety net when alone in London. It would be a shame for that to be lost.

 

A more regulated Uber is infinitely preferable to the incumbents when it comes to the process of actually getting a taxi or arriving in a timely fashion.

e.g. Getting an Uber from docklands to the outskirts late at night: 5 minute wait, 25 minutes along the A406. Getting a black cab from the same palce at the same time: 15-20 minute wait, cabbie insists that going through the 'back roads' through the middle of Stratford and Walthamstow is faster. Takes 40 minutes to get home, and costs three times as much. 'The Knowledge' isn't worth **** if you ignore live traffic info.

 

From a consumer point of view this is just annoying. I don't use them very often, but when I do the service has been really convenient. Black cabs are con artists as far as I know, it appears The Knowledge basically allows them to construct silly routes that they can claim will be faster than the GPS suggestion, but mysteriously take aaaaaages. Proper minicabs can get around the cost issue but you need to call a place local to wherever you happen to be to have any hope of not waiting for a lifetime.

 

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The Met haven't been too chuffed with how they responded to numerous allegations of rape and sexual assaults in Uber vehicles. That on top of all the other issues they have it doesn't surprise me.

Yeah we could learn from Finland on a few things. It is nice being picked up in a clean and prompt Merc or BMW but then you do pay a fortune for taxi rides.

 

This is completely off the mark in this situation. Everyone driving for uber is required to obtain a private hire license and have their car insured for carriage of passengers accordingly. Uber is basically a huge minicab company in London

 

Yep, there seems to be a lot of confusion between how Uber operate in the UK, and how UberPool operates in the US and some other markets.

 

I've only used Uber a few times, but each time has been in a large city or airport pick ups (London and New York) and I've never had an issue, so much easier to open a single app and request a pick up with associated price visible.
I don't need to worry about finding a cab number for the local area, or get ripped off by the prices for a Hackney or NYC cab.

Taxi's need to move with the times, Uber offers a more convenient service.

 

It would be interesting to hear a female viewpoint on Uber. Do women feel safer in black cabs or no different? It's not just about convenience.

 

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They're regulated as minicabs (i.e. you call them up to request a cab) rather than Taxis (i.e. you hail one passing by). Acquiring a PHV require proof of appropriate insurance (for hire use).

 

Well, it would seem that while the TfL weren't prosecuting for the last five years, they were paying attention.

In an ideal world Uber will be made to clean up it's act and follow the same rules of other private hire firms (like insurance, CRB checks, employment terms etc), but I expect they will either get away it and carry on, or TfL will run them out of town, in which case all of Uber's drivers will suddenly be based just outside of TfL's jurisdiction.

To quote my little sister on using Uber, **** No.

 

Locally a load of taxi drivers abandoned their taxi firms to drive for uber [or did uber jobs on the side]. From what I heard, most of them went back to regular taxi-ing as they weren't making any money.

 

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In recent years there has been a big problem in Cardiff with taxis - that is, "flag one down in the street" taxis, not "book in advance" minicabs - refusing to take passengers. Officially if they're on duty then they're not allowed to refuse a fare, but that doesn't stop them. It used to happen to me quite often when we lived closer to the city centre: it was a ~30-40 minute walk home or 5 minutes in a taxi, but many didn't want to take us such a short distance for such a small fare.

Many female friends would refuse to try and get a taxi home from the city centre after a night out: they would either book something in advance, get friends or family to pick them up, or make sure they went home in mixed-gender groups. None of them wanted to be stranded on their own in town at pub/club kickout time because every taxi they found had refused the fare. Cardiff's "night out catchment area" is quite wide and it can be an intimidating place at kickout time, even for a group of stocky 6'+ blokes.

Few taxi drivers were suspended or had their operating permission revoked - most of the time people just want to get home, they don't want to have to take down the number plate of each taxi that refuses a fare and put in formal complaints.

Admittedly I don't go out as often as I used to, and of course all of this is only anecdotal evidence, but since they started operating here I've never once heard of an Uber driver refusing a fare in Cardiff.

 

In London what makes "normal" (i.e. black) cabs special is that they are able to pick people up on the street without pre-booking. These are the only types of cabs that can. Minicabs can't and Uber can't either. As such Uber is regulated in the same way as Minicabs.

In London Uber really isn't "providing the same services as normal cabs", from a regulatory point of view at least.

 

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