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Uber to lose license in London today ?



Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
I don't know what that's meant to mean. I spent 22 years in London, cycling pretty much every day - I had various jobs, with commuting distance of eight to 12 miles.

Black cab drivers are, by some distance, the most best sort of drivers to be round. They tend to give plenty of room and actually use indicators, something that most London drivers are clueless about. It's van and lorry drivers that are the biggest worry.

I've had a black cab drive over my back wheel, crushing it, in the Moorgate area, shouting out of his window WRONG LANE, as he chortled. And another sped in front of me on a roundabout, skidded to a halt, and gave me a loud ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, and the bird. This wasn't far from Moorgate either actually.
Most are fine, but I haven't seen this behavior from regular drivers.
 






Westdene Seagull

aka Cap'n Carl Firecrotch
NSC Patreon
Oct 27, 2003
20,938
The arse end of Hangleton
In London there is an sexual assault By an uber driver on average every 11 days,, ( in a black cab there has been one in the last 100 years (warbouys) there has been at least 2 terrorists attacks carried out by uber drivers in London in last 18 months,, there has been countless deaths and serious injuries in collisions involving Uber drivers, a few weeks ago a motor cyclists had 3 collisions with Uber driver's in one month the 3rd being fatal ,,,, just some of the reasons Uber is not fit and proper !!

Strange that you have the data to make such claims when MPS don't collect that type of data.
 


wellquickwoody

Many More Voting Years
NSC Patreon
Aug 10, 2007
13,585
Melbourne




studio150

Well-known member
Jul 30, 2011
29,555
On the Border
I was always against Uber as I felt they were under cutting the taxi drivers. That was until I had to get a cab from Heathrow to a hotel in the area less than 1 mile away . I went to the taxi rank abd the first 2 cab drivers said "no dont fancy that mate " and the taxi driver who ended up taking me wanted £50 . I had no choice but to pay it and since that time I've used Uber ever since, not only because they're cheaper but they will take you where you want to go not like arrogant cabbies who will only take you if it suits them

Given that taxi drivers can not turn down fares based on short hops I would have challenged the cabbie and told him I would be making a complaint to TFL and taken the reg number and taxi plate number.
Same with the £50 cabbie they are not permitted to inflate short hop fares so again I would have challenged him and complained.

I certainly would not have paid £50. As others have said walk or shuttle bus if the cabbies were happy for you to complain rather than saying yes you're right jump in.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
This is (in my view) a good article about why the TfL decision is a sensible one
http://www.citymetric.com/transport...company-provide-cabs-london-here-s-why-s-good

I suggest you think its a good article and a sensible decision because it coincides with your own view.

I suggest it's a shit article that I could pick apart line by line if I was bothered, and I say that as someone who is largely indifferent to Uber. Yes, I've used Uber in various places, London included, but most weeks and months I don't because I live in a sleepy Sussex town that Uber has not been interested in thus far.
 


Wrong-Direction

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2013
13,395
This is absolutely shite news! I've always used ubers in London and they've always been cheap as chips, £20 for almost 40min ride, how much would that have been in a cab?

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alfredmizen

Banned
Mar 11, 2015
6,342


TheJasperCo

Well-known member
Jan 20, 2012
4,590
Exeter
TfL have banned Uber on grounds of it being unfit and proper. I wonder what that means? If it means that they there aren't enough safety checks on cars and drivers to the extent that we have seen an alarming number of accidents and passenger assaults then I have absolutely no sympathy.

I don't want to be told this by the cabbies though as they are acting in self preservation only, much as they did (perfectly reasonably) when they campaigned to refuse the right of minicabs to pick up without a pre-ordered fair. Personally I think paying a hefty premium for "the knowledge" is just not worth it anymore.

However, you can't put a price on passenger safety. Uber need to address that before they come back to the market. It will mean increased overheads which will in turn impact the cost of Uber fairs, but that is the way it ought to be.

A really fair assessment. Up in Newcastle I had an Uber account for occasional use and I couldn't fault it really. Decent customer service, low fares, transparency, generally clean cars and friendly drivers.

I do get that they are a controversial company though, with plenty of opponents. I mean, I wasn't keen on the limited local geographic knowledge of most Ubers, who relied so often on their satnavs. Obviously their safeguarding policies for more vulnerable customers suck arse, so hopefully this'll be a wake-up call. Show them they cannot get away with doing the bare minimum in vetting drivers.

The judgement naturally has to be legally sound otherwise it'll be successfully challenged on appeal.
 






soistes

Well-known member
Sep 12, 2012
2,643
Brighton
I suggest you think its a good article and a sensible decision because it coincides with your own view.

I suggest it's a shit article that I could pick apart line by line if I was bothered, and I say that as someone who is largely indifferent to Uber. Yes, I've used Uber in various places, London included, but most weeks and months I don't because I live in a sleepy Sussex town that Uber has not been interested in thus far.

I suggest that your response is a shit, lazy one, based on incorrect ad hominem assumptions about my motives for posting, but which I couldn't pick apart line by line, even if I wanted to, because you can't be arsed to make an argument. But maybe that's what passes for debate in your sleepy Sussex town.

For the record the reason I thought it was a good article (and I've got nothing at all against Uber in principle) was that it was pointing out that all TfL had done was to do their regulatory job of protecting the public, but done it in a way which, rather than close Uber down, puts a shot across their bows, giving them an opportunity to get their act together, and at the same time showing them that they can't run contemptuous rings around the London authorities as they seem to have in some other cities. The reason that I posted the article was that I thought it put that point well and added to the debate in this thread.




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Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,324
Uffern
I've had a black cab drive over my back wheel, crushing it, in the Moorgate area, shouting out of his window WRONG LANE, as he chortled. And another sped in front of me on a roundabout, skidded to a halt, and gave me a loud ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, and the bird. This wasn't far from Moorgate either actually.
Most are fine, but I haven't seen this behavior from regular drivers.

I'm sure some people have had bad experiences but I can only go on my 22 year experience riding my own bike (and six years riding Boris bikes) and I've had zero bad experiences with cabbies.
 




Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
12,390
Brighton
Uber:
Manages to pay its drivers under the minimum wage and not provide any of its workers with employment rights. Yeah, those digital start-up kids - they're not like those big fat cats in the established FTSE 100 companies. Nope, in Uber's case they are far worse.

As for Amazon! :rant: (ahem, sorry [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION])
 




brightn'ove

cringe
Apr 12, 2011
9,136
London
I'm sure some people have had bad experiences but I can only go on my 22 year experience riding my own bike (and six years riding Boris bikes) and I've had zero bad experiences with cabbies.

Perhaps you were too busy counting the numbers of males & females jumping red lights to notice?
 


The Spanish

Well-known member
Aug 12, 2008
6,477
P
That's ****ing shit.

Sometimes uber is the only option late at night and when trying to get transport early in the morning before any trains.

Black cabs are one of the biggest causes of pollution in the city and the drivers are absolute cheating lying scumbag road-hogging c***ts.

Genuinely gutted.

So putting 8 billion of these Prius on the streets of London clogging up the place is helping is it. Buses are half empty in central London during the day and are less than two quid. Why everyone thinks they deserve a personal driver for cheap is beyond me.

I think it's brilliant this race to the bottom has been halted. Black cabs are great.
 




Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,324
Uffern
Perhaps you were too busy counting the numbers of males & females jumping red lights to notice?

Eh? Surely that would put me more at risk?

And I spent two months counting red light jumpers - that's out of a total of 28 years cycling.
 


taz

Active member
Feb 18, 2015
161
Just try Google,, Uber London sexual assaults figures freedom of information act, or Buckingham palace terrorist attack, Leytonstone tube terrorist attack,, but feel free to ignore if you more concerned about saving £1 on your journey !!
 



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