[Brighton] UBER Licence Revoked in Brighton and Hove

B-right-on said:

Taxi drivers have to spend months learning their trade and have all kinds of strict rules to adhere to like car safety (there's a strict taxi MOT), police checks and so on. Uber and it's drivers hasn't had to go through these.

It's all "ok" until some convicted crim picks up a young girls or you're doing 70 along the A27 in a Uber car and the wheel falls off. Then the council would be shot from every angle.

Taxis are pretty expensive. But they are amongst the safest cabs in the world and unfortunately there's a cost to that.

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I do understand what you saying however, Uber drivers in the UK are only allowed to operate if they have a UK Private Hire Licence from a council who issues to Uber drivers. If there is an issue of safety could this mean the wider UK licensing policy need reviewing for all firms operating?

B-right-on said:

Taxi drivers have to spend months learning their trade and have all kinds of strict rules to adhere to like car safety (there's a strict taxi MOT), police checks and so on. Uber and it's drivers hasn't had to go through these.

It's all "ok" until some convicted crim picks up a young girls or you're doing 70 along the A27 in a Uber car and the wheel falls off. Then the council would be shot from every angle.

Taxis are pretty expensive. But they are amongst the safest cabs in the world and unfortunately there's a cost to that.

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All cars require a strict MOT to operate, not just cabs. And remind me what did John Warboys do for a living?

At least with an Uber you know in advance what the fare will be, unlike cabs. The cab fare system is open to massive abuse,

goldstone said:

Good. Don't like Uber. Never used it, doubt I ever will. Same with Air B&B. No time for these new-fangled ideas. We managed just fine without them.

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If you not used UBER or AirBNB then how do you know you don't like it ? You might love it . Uber in Brighton was / is great . Its half the price sometimes - half the price of a normal rip off taxi . Airbnb fantastic been using it for years and I rent rooms out in my house . Met wonderful people from all over the world . Its brilliant . Its also 10 years old so its hardly "new - fangled " . Its called change and progress my friend .
If it really bothers you take a ride on the Volks railway - thats still running . It only goes to one place though . However I expect that would probably suit you down to the ground .

BHCC licencing panel never used UBER

So the three people who made a judgement on Uber have never used an Uber apparently - according to the Argus . Whatever your opinion that is shocking . You cannot fully understand something until you use it . When I first used Uber I thought it was brilliant - a little car drives round my phone screen and then comes and picks me up - always in less than 5 mins . You dont have to carry cash - so its safer and easier and when you wake up in the morning with a hangover theres an email with a map telling you where you were the night before .
So Jacqui O Quinn, Lynda Hynde and Lizzie Deane - you didnt do your jobs properly when you made a judgement on Uber - as you never used an Uber . You should be ashamed of yourselves

brianwade said:

So the three people who made a judgement on Uber have never used an Uber apparently - according to the Argus . Whatever your opinion that is shocking . You cannot fully understand something until you use it . When I first used Uber I thought it was brilliant - a little car drives round my phone screen and then comes and picks me up - always in less than 5 mins . You dont have to carry cash - so its safer and easier and when you wake up in the morning with a hangover theres an email with a map telling you where you were the night before .
So Jacqui O Quinn, Lynda Hynde and Lizzie Deane - you didnt do your jobs properly when you made a judgement on Uber - as you never used an Uber . You should be ashamed of yourselves

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Hear, hear... Its so disappointing to see how out of touch our council is; Jacqui O Quinn, Lynda Hynde and Lizzie Deane should be trying to embrace the gig economy which employees hundreds, if not thousands of people in Brighton and Hove. Companies like Uber, Deliveroo, Hermes Delivery are all disrupting the traditional working environment by allowing people to work for who they want, when they want. Established, traditional companies need to change the way they work as the new breed are showing them up.

Both can operate in the marketplace, its competition and the consumer (all of us) will benefit from this not suffer. If the council helped Uber rather than penalise them, there is a potential benefit to all.

Good.

Great news. More people without jobs!

goldstone said:

Good. Don't like Uber. Never used it, doubt I ever will. Same with Air B&B. No time for these new-fangled ideas. We managed just fine without them.

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What a ****ing moron comment

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Megazone said:

Great news. More people without jobs!

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Nobody has lost a job. The Brighton licensed uber drivers can work for an alternative Brighton licensed company. The law will allow the drivers from Liverpool, Wolverhampton , Portsmouth and any other town or city to continue to work here.
They could of course all clear off back to the area where they are licensed and work there !

I find uber to be much more reliable and much more cost effective than any of the B&H cabs I've taken lately.

The drivers don't seem to grunt at you either If you dare to speak.

brianwade said:

If you not used UBER or AirBNB then how do you know you don't like it ? You might love it . Uber in Brighton was / is great . Its half the price sometimes - half the price of a normal rip off taxi . Airbnb fantastic been using it for years and I rent rooms out in my house . Met wonderful people from all over the world . Its brilliant . Its also 10 years old so its hardly "new - fangled " . Its called change and progress my friend .
If it really bothers you take a ride on the Volks railway - thats still running . It only goes to one place though . However I expect that would probably suit you down to the ground .

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Whose paying for the cab fare if you are not then ? Uber fares are funded by Goldman Sachs/others by around 60% - THATS why they are half the price. And when they put all the other Taxi Co's out of work, they'll increase the fares again, because they can and they have to, to get all their money back - Currently at a loss of $1.5 Billion ( [MENTION=232]Simster[/MENTION] can work out which version for us)

And while they are there, they are already looking to get rid of their biggest cost. The driver. As you said 'Great and Progress'

(Not even ventured into the murky world of Uber drivers being accused and convicted of Sexual assault)

I love Uber. Always on time, will pick you up from mental locations and reasonable agreed fares. Brilliant.

Typical Behaviour from B&H mind you. They'd have everyone riding bikes up bear road if they could.

Rowdey said:

Whose paying for the cab fare if you are not then ? Uber fares are funded by Goldman Sachs/others by around 60% - THATS why they are half the price. And when they put all the other Taxi Co's out of work, they'll increase the fares again, because they can and they have to, to get all their money back - Currently at a loss of $1.5 Billion ( [MENTION=232]Simster[/MENTION] can work out which version for us)

And while they are there, they are already looking to get rid of their biggest cost. The driver. As you said 'Great and Progress'

(Not even ventured into the murky world of Uber drivers being accused and convicted of Sexual assault)

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Cough...John Worbouys...cough.

goldstone said:

Good. Don't like Uber. Never used it, doubt I ever will. Same with Air B&B. No time for these new-fangled ideas. We managed just fine without them.

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Nice to see you're keeping an open mind on these things.

Let’s all drive everyone else’s wages down and personally save a few bob eh.

I’m not suggesting that local taxi services don’t need to change, they do. But I really don’t think Uber is the answer, unless you couldn’t give a stuff about the way this country is going.

Bevendean Hillbilly said:

Cough...John Worbouys...cough.

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Bad cough that.

A stain on London Black Cab drivers that's for sure. But we're talking between 2002 and 2007 i think. And if the Met had got their shit together, he would have been caught a lot earlier.

Lets look at the last set of data available (2016)
Half of all licensed cab drivers charged with sexual assault, were Uber drivers (13)
No black cab drivers were charged in this period.

From a Freedom of Information request to Transport For London:

2015 - 32 allegations of sexual assault against Uber drivers
2016 - 48 allegations of sexual assault against Uber drivers

brianwade said:

So the three people who made a judgement on Uber have never used an Uber apparently - according to the Argus . Whatever your opinion that is shocking . You cannot fully understand something until you use it .

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nonsense. you dont have to use something to understand how something works and more importantly judge whether a service is conforming to standards, regulations, effect on other serivice providers so on. thats what the license should be based on, not personal like or dislike./

The uber app is very good but the uber company stink, a loss of billions every year when they don't own a single thing and just rent a few small office's stinks of Predatory pricing to put any rivals out of business,, Local taxi companies have spent or will soon be spending fortunes on the revolutionary phone apps to keep up, (buying an app is not cheap) All taxi drivers want is equal Competition Following the same safety rules and local requirements, and have not a hope in hell against a huge multi billion dollar company that's willing to lose 2.7 billion dollars a year with a work force thats willing to work for below minimum wage happy to travel miles from there licence area, sleep in there cars, or up to 4 sharing a tiny shabby caravan in wild park, able to drive members of the public on an international drivers licences and a letter from the embassy of a war torn country saying that there is no record held of criminal offences for the applicant,, (which is perfectly acceptable in some local authorities) uber in London will probably lose its licence, there are quite a few other international app based companies waiting to take ubers place but unwilling to take on uber head on, uber not only destroys any rivals it stops any rivals from starting up !!

Uber provide a fantastic service for those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Uber Brighton & Hove Operator Licence Refusal - GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section Press Statement:

The GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section is very pleased that following the six hour Public Hearing of the 2018 Brighton & Hove Uber Operators Licence renewal application the council has refused to grant a renewal.

At the time of writing this we do not have the full details of reasons for refusal but we imagine that all the concerns raised by the trade were taken into full consideration.

Copies of all documents and the audio of the ‘Public Hearing’ can be accessed at www.bhtaxinews.cab

However.... it is a shame that Uber.. the multi-billion dollar disruptive technology company could not act in a responsible way to work in the city alongside the existing companies in a fair and competitive manner without encouraging taxi and private hire drivers from hundreds of miles away to predominantly work in the city... away from their respective Enforcement Officers which is an important requirement for public safety.

The only contribution Uber ever made to the trade was an attempt to remove the local ‘Knowledge Test’ which failed despite being presented by the Uber solicitors that “Satellite Navigation is better".

Uber also gave instructions to drivers to remove licence plates and council livery making these cars completely unidentifiable to the public which was a step back to pre-1976 before the ‘Local Government Miscellaneous Act 1976’ was put in place.

Our own council ‘Enforcement Officers’ have worked tirelessly having to deal with a considerable amount of complaints made by the local trade of infringements caused by these uncontrollable ‘out-of-town’ drivers who think nothing of illegally sitting on Brighton & Hove taxi ranks and sleeping in their vehicles night-in and night-out on the seafront and driving in the wrong direction in one way systems.... all under the watch of Uber.

The trade has had to act as the ‘eyes and ears’ to protect the public and we would like to thank our Enforcement Officers for their time and patience in dealing with this.

However....Uber threatened at the ‘Public Hearing’ that even if it lost its Operators Licence it will continue to operate in the city.
This means that Brighton & Hove will still be flooded with taxi and private hire drivers from Lewes.. Portsmouth.. Southampton ....Chichester ...Reigate & Banstead.. Wolverhampton... Sefton.. New Forest.... and many other areas who do not comply with the strict licensing conditions as laid down in the ‘Brighton & Hove City Council Blue Book - Conditions of Licensing for Taxi & Private Hire Drivers, Vehicles and Operators’ which is there for the protection of the public.

One of these conditions of licensing is compulsory CCTV which is much scorned on by Uber.

Additionally there is the responsibility for the provision of ‘Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles’ (WAV’S) that despite Uber having access to the hundreds of ‘out-of-town’ taxi and private hire vehicles that it encourages to predominantly work in the city ...not one of them is WAV compliant... nor is there any facility on its App to book one.

We have no doubt that Uber will appeal the decision and we hope that Brighton & Hove City Council will be robust with any defence.
The GMB would like to express our thanks to the cross party ‘Licensing Panel’ members... Councillor Jackie O’Quinn .. Councillor Lizzie Deane and Councillor Lynda Hyde and all the council officers who were involved in making the decision.

We believe that the trade was absolutely correct in calling for the renewal to be held at a ‘Public Hearing’ and not behind closed doors... where the trade could make direct presentations and all parties could be thoroughly questioned by the council. We strongly believe that without the call for the ‘Public Hearing’ the outcome would have been very different.

We would like to thank all the local councillors who supported this and with special thanks to Councillor Lee Wares who wrote to the council specifically expressing his own support for a Public Hearing.
We would also like to thank Caroline Lucas MP for her continuous support for the local trade along with Peter Kyle MP and Lloyd Russel-Moyle MP.

The GMB would also like to thank fellow trade reps for their continuous hard work and contribution to the ‘Public Hearing’ on Monday April 23 2018 which has shown that by working together great achievements can be made.

We now hope that other licensing authorities that either already license Uber as an Operator....or who may receive such an application... will look to Brighton & Hove City Council for guidance and take appropriate similar action as the local trades in those areas are having to deal with exactly the same issues as in Brighton & Hove,.

The next major issue is to change Legislation that brought chaos to the trade across the UK with uncontrollable ‘Cross-Border Hiring’ following the disastrous ‘Deregulation Act 2015’ and the work on this continues.

The Disrupter has been Disrupted.....