Taxi Driver Online

Announced overnight that Uber have purchased Autocab.

The intention is to use Igo system to distribute work to PH drivers in areas that they don't currently operate.

My initial reaction is that this is a very astute move by Uber. iCabbi next?

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Uber to acquire Autocab

https://www.uber.com/en-GB/newsroom/ube ... e-autocab/

Local taxi firms and drivers will be able to access hundreds of thousands of new additional trips every month.

London, 6th August 2020 – Uber has today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire UK technology company Autocab. Autocab provides private hire and taxi operators with technology to run their business, including booking and dispatch software, and also connects them with trips through their iGo marketplace.

Every month thousands of people open the Uber app in places the company doesn’t operate to try to get a trip. Through Autocab’s iGo marketplace, Uber will be able to connect these riders with local operators who choose to take their booking. In turn, operators should be able to expand their operations and offer more earnings opportunities to local drivers. Uber will also explore providing drivers with additional revenue opportunities related to its platform for other services, such as delivery.

Autocab’s mission has always been to encourage local private hire and taxi operators to transform their businesses, and their CEO believes Uber’s technology can help accelerate Autocab’s global ambition and the growth of their customers’ businesses.

Post-acquisition, Autocab will remain independent with its own board focussed exclusively on providing technology to the taxi and private hire industry around the world.

Safa Alkatab, CEO of Autocab, said:

“Autocab has been working with local operators across the world to provide the technology to make them more efficient and open up a marketplace to provide more trips. Working with Uber we can scale up our ambitions, providing hundreds of thousands of additional trips for our customers, and help cement the place of licenced operators in their local community.”

Jamie Heywood, Regional General Manager, Northern & Eastern Europe, Uber, said:

“Autocab has worked successfully with taxi and private hire operators around the world for more than thirty years and Uber has a lot to learn from their experience. We look forward to working with the Autocab team to help local operators grow and provide drivers with genuine earnings opportunities.”

So PH operators will be happy to let Uber give jobs to their drivers via Autocab?

Can't see that, somehow. Drivers would start taking all their jobs from Uber to cut out the middleman. And customers would go directly to Uber and undermine the local PH businesses. Local operators would be cutting their own throats, slowly but surely.

Sly move by Uber, but I can't see why local firms currently using Autocab would allow that?

Do you think so? As I said in the news section, why would local operators be happy funnelling Uber bookings to their drivers via their Autocab booking systems? They'd be cutting their own throats, surely?

Sounds a bit like these local/regional app start-ups, who think they can work with all the local firms and they'll be happy for an app to encompass several local offices and steal all their thunder.

The app would just be given an easy foot in the door with several ready-made fleets of cars and drivers on tap, but the existing operators would just be cutting each other's throats and giving the app an easy way in.

Stuart

Many years ago on this forum the secretary of the NTA told a story about the cab trade in Carlisle.

One operator had been doing work for 'the mighty' Fraser Eagle, who hadn't paid them for 4 months and owed him so much his business was in danger of going under. He rang FE to say he would not supply them until he was paid the outstanding amount. He then rang 4 competitors to 'warn' them that FE might come calling but they don't pay their bills.

Within an hour 3 of those competitors had rung FE to volunteer to do their work.

The morale of this story is, never underestimate how thick a large number of PH operators are.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Basically it sounds as though the autocab app is being replaced with the uber App. I know one of the biggest users of that is DG cars in Nottingham. I wonder how they will take that ?

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

I think under the current climate some might see it as a way round the self employment debacle.

Drivers will be simultaneously working for more than one operator therefore self employed and not entitled to sick pay,holiday pay etc !

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

So Autocab have gone from actively working against Uber to virtually jumping into bed with them for an undisclosed huge sum of money! So glad we migrated to Datamaster a few years ago.

Defo a case of Uber coming in from the cold.

They have spent and lost 10s of billions fighting the existing tax/PH trade, with some success to be fair.

But this move if they use a bit of sense could be a winner for them.

Only time will tell.

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IDFIMH

Cannot understand why any operator seems to be welcoming this what would be a monopoly.

Uber would set the fares not to the advantage of the drivers but themselves,they have to be seen by investors to be making an attempt to give a return on investment or paying off their debts.

Anyone else would have been declared bankrupt by now.

If this is allowed to pass all will suffer and untold quantities of company(operators at present) and members of the public will be held outside of the UK and open to abuse.

Not in our neck of the woods,uber were refused a license.

All day long.

We must remember that Uber aren't giving drivers work via Autocab, they are giving work to operators via Autocab.

I suspect many operators will keep the bookings origin secret from drivers, although I suppose the punters might mention it.

As for the drivers many, if not all, wont give a flying f***.

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IDFIMH

Because it's work, and the more work a firm has the more drivers it will attract.

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IDFIMH

If I offered you an absolute fortune for your company, I suspect you would rip my arm off.

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IDFIMH

Quite, and also a way of getting around any future VAT liabilities.

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IDFIMH