Addison Lee drivers plan Mayfair protestHundreds of drivers planning to protest against falling pay rates and contract changes at Addison Lee, the country’s biggest minicab operator, are expected to bring Mayfair’s Berkeley Square to a standstill on Tuesday.
Drivers plan to block the road outside the offices of the Carlyle Group, the private equity owners of Addison Lee, in the latest sign of the industry’s struggle to adapt to the impact of ride-hailing apps such as Uber.
Uber’s growth has provoked strikes and sometimes violent protest in capitals including London, Paris and Brussels, but drivers are now turning their anger towards the established companies who are trying to keep up with their disruptive rival.
Unions say fare cuts to compete with Uber’s low prices have driven some drivers’ hourly earnings to as low as £4.99 — 30 per cent below minimum wage.
Addison Lee, however, insists that average earnings have increased in the past year, and described its new pay deal as “the best in the industry.”
Steve ********, branch secretary of the GMB union’s professional drivers branch, said: “We told them we don’t want to have to be like this, we want Addison Lee to be successful, but when you keep imposing deals on people it doesn’t really fit. Contracts should not be a one-way street.”
Mr ******** said the union was being forced into its second demonstration in as many months after both Addison Lee and Carlyle ignored multiple requests for meetings.
In a recent letter to Carlyle, representatives of GMB said “the current attitude of Addison Lee’s senior management is unacceptable and unsustainable”.
A spokesman for Addison Lee said: “We are disappointed that a tiny minority of our 4,500 drivers have indicated that they intend to inconvenience Londoners in order to draw attention to their demands. We are working with [Transport for London] and the Metropolitan Police to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum.”
Carlyle bought Addison Lee for about £300m in 2013, and abandoned efforts to sell the company less than two years later, after potential buyers raised questions about the impact Uber could have on its long-term prospects.
The San Francisco-based start-up now has more than 25,000 registered drivers in London, and its success has helped bring about a 97 per cent fall in the number of new taxi companies in the UK in the first four months of the year, and an 11 per cent decline in the number of private hire operators in London.
Addison Lee is now trying to take the fight to Uber, expanding internationally and signing up to industry initiatives such as Karhoo, a taxi comparison app that was launched in London this month.
source:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2d4432dc-202c ... z49Po6dWe6
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