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PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:04 am 
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Obviously there's been a shedload of these articles in the last few days. Don't know why I found this piece today in particular (it's a few days old now), but it roughly reflects my own views on how the Uber thing will work out, therefore worth posting now 8-[

It's by Alistair Osborne, the Chief Business Commentator in The Times.


Taxi for Uber? I wouldn’t bet on it

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/taxi ... -9vl9rhqdg

So, is it really Uber and out? Don’t be daft. The taxi app and Transport for London have been round this circuit before — in September 2017. And look what happened after that threatened ban: a lengthy appeal, a clean-up and a new 15-month licence. The ride-hailing outfit didn’t miss a single day’s business. You’d bet on a similar outcome this time.

There’s too much at stake on both sides. Three and a half million Londoners use the Uber app: one that’s halved the cost of taxi travel in the capital, at least compared with black cabs. There are also 45,000 drivers reliant on the work it brings, whatever your reservations about their terms of employment.

So, a lot of voters to annoy, not least with a mayoral election next May. As the incumbent, Sadiq Khan, noted: “I know this decision may be unpopular with Uber users.” No kidding. Last time, 375,000 people signed a petition to reverse the ban.

Yet that’s not to say that TfL’s not within its rights to revoke Uber’s licence. Or that having the company declared “not fit and proper” isn’t a blooper for Dara Khosrowshahi. At the time of 2017’s TfL run-in, he’d been at the wheel a month, having taking over from Travis Kalanick. Distinguishing himself from Uber’s cocksure founder, its new boss arrived with the mantra: “We do the right thing. Period.”

That’s not how it looked yesterday, despite him declaring that “this TfL decision is just wrong”. The transport body, responsible for licensing taxi services, unearthed more than 14,000 Uber trips where the driver was uninsured: the result of a systems loophole that allowed unauthorised drivers to upload their photos to other drivers’ accounts. To boot, some banned drivers had managed to create new Uber accounts, enabling them to pick up passengers again. One had been cautioned for distributing indecent images of children.

Uber says it has closed the photo loophole, used by 43 drivers, and is introducing facial recognition technology. But having hired tech consultancy Cognizant to review Uber’s systems, TfL says it still “does not have confidence that similar issues will not reoccur”. Uber is appealing: a process that took nine months last time. Apparently, it believes Cognizant was too focused on “tools and processes”, rather than “outcomes”. And the Uber app that tracks drivers’ journeys does have newish safety features. They include allowing friends to follow trips.

Whatever, Uber must convince a judge that it’s fixed things. And getting thrown out of one of its biggest markets is not an option. The shares are already on the skids: down 1 per cent to about $29 and well adrift of May’s $45 float price.

Moreover, despite alternative apps such as Kapten and Bolt, neither can Mr Khan afford to drive Uber out of town. He says passengers’ “safety is the paramount concern”. But in a city blighted by knife crime, the night bus or walking home can be a far riskier alternative — as parents across the capital know. It’s in both sides’ interests to keep the wheels on here.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 2:06 pm 
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Location: Stamford Britains prettiest town till SKDC ruined it
And herein lies the problem people love them because they are cheap and available in huge numbers. But that would change tomorrow if an alternative came along that matched or was even cheaper than uber.

The other problem is that for every passenger that has had a major issue there are a hundred that haven't and when you talk to them are unwilling to believe there is a risk.

Uber is a first port of call for immigrants recently arrived in the UK looking for a job and these are the very people who come from areas of the world where that sort of behaviour is tolerated so it happens

I would say though that Sadiq Khan is less likely to lose votes standing up for safety than for removing Ubers license people will quickly forget and move onto another app or PH operator and if properly licensed they are quite able to switch to a different operator

The real problem is weeding out all the rogues

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 12:59 pm 
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Quote:
They include allowing friends to follow trips.

You can do that currently with whatsapp.

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