Taxi Driver Online

Uber launches legal action over new London taxi rules



Uber has launched legal action against London's transport regulator over new rules that threaten to limit its business in the capital, City A.M. can exclusively reveal.

The billion-dollar startup is seeking a judicial review to halt the introduction of new rules it claims are too strict.

Transport for London set out new regulations earlier this year after a wide-ranging consultation of the taxi and minicab industry following a long-standing feud between Uber and London's black cab drivers.

The initial regulation was previously welcomed by Uber, but in recent months the details of the rules have become too onerous, Uber claims.

Now, Uber is pursuing legal action over the matter, filing official papers with the courts this week after sending a so-called letter before action to TfL.

TfL said it would defend the legality of the new regulations.

“We responded to Uber's letter and will be robustly defending the legal proceedings brought by them in relation to the changes to private hire regulations," a TfL spokesperson told City A.M.

"These have been introduced to enhance public safety when using private hire services and we are determined to create a vibrant taxi and private hire market with space for all providers to flourish.”

Uber is challenging four of the new rules; requiring written English tests for drivers, having to locate its customer service call centre in London, requiring insurance that covers drivers when they are not working and having to alert TfL of changes to its business model or app.

It last week rallied customers to contact the mayor of London urging him to review the regulation while business leaders and entrepreneurs have also written to Sadiq Khan asking him to rethink the rules, raising concerns that the red tape could stifle innovation and London's digital economy in the wake of Brexit.

It comes as the mayor promised to make new plans for the future of the taxi and minicab industry in the capital.

A spokesperson for the mayor said: "Sadiq has asked his team to produce a comprehensive new strategy that will herald in a new era for the capital's taxi and private hire trades.

"Further details will be released later this year of a plan that will deliver radical improvements for customers, a boost to safety, support for the taxi trade and further improve the quality of service offered by the private hire trade. There will also be a concerted effort to make London's taxi fleet the greenest in the world."

City Hall would not be drawn on whether this would include reviewing the new regulations, agreed under former mayor Boris Johnson.

Tom Elvidge, general manager at Uber London, said: "This legal action is very much a last resort. We're particularly disappointed that, after a lengthy consultation process with Transport for London, the goalposts have moved at the last minute and new rules are now being introduced that will be bad for both drivers and tech companies like Uber."

London's cabbies, who believe the new rules do not go far enough, have also backed Uber's call for a rethink, indicating the black cab trade stood to gain from a more favourable outcome.

The head of the London Taxi Drivers Association Steve McNamara on Monday said he was confident Khan would do "what's right for London".

Other minicab firms in the capital have backed the new regulation, however.

Addison Lee chief executive Andy Boland said: “Having previously backed the proposals it’s hard to understand Uber’s resistance to implementation of these new regulations. The whole industry was fully involved in the consultation and there is a strong belief that they will benefit both passengers and drivers.”

Gett managing director for Europe Remo Gerber called Uber's U-turn on the regulations "baffling".

“Frankly we’re surprised we’re wasting time on this. We should be focusing on the post Brexit needs of London, not minor operational details," he said.

source: http://www.cityam.com/247633/uber-launc ... taxi-rules

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

City AM’s Uber Love-In BUSTED



London's business freesheet spends rather more time apparently churning over Uber's PR spin than it does questioning its tactics.

The behaviour of those running rider and driver matching service Uber has passed before my inspection previously: the aggressive posturing of the California based company, bankrolled by Goldman Sachs and Google, and led by Travis Kalanick, the 21st Century reincarnation of Cornelius Vanderbilt, has become infamous, especially its efforts to simultaneously screw over both London’s black cabs, and its own drivers.

Meanwhile, the inability of the right-leaning press to see Uber for what it really is - an attempt to gain monopoly market power which treats its own drivers as slaves, mere prisoners of the app - has continued apace, with unquestioning churnalism taking Uber’s claim that this is merely a manifestation of so-called “disruptive technology”, and that anyone opposing it is stuck in the past, resistant to change.

So it has been with freesheet City AM, now edited by Uber cheerleader extraordinaire Christian May, and especially when London’s new Mayor Sadiq Khan, who looks like he is actually going to treat the job seriously - unlike his predecessor - decided to bring in new regulations covering taxis and minicabs. Uber is not happy at having to accede to any regulations, and so is doubly unhappy about Khan’s actions.

The task of selling Uber’s excuses for not acceding to the same regulations accepted by everyone else has, at City AM, been delegated to Lynsey Barber, who is the paper’s Technology Editor - remember, it’s all about technology, right? We should keep on Looking Over There. And Ms Barber obediently churns over Uber’s talking points.

“Uber is turning to its customers to help it fight ‘bureaucratic’ new rules imposed by Transport for London, including an English exam ‘harder than the test for British citizenship’ … The billion-dollar company said the rules would ‘threaten the livelihood of thousands of drivers’, reducing their numbers and thus increasing the waiting times for users”. Ah, how did London manage before Uber? Er, quite well enough, actually.

But there’s more: Uber “has also called out a requirement for part-time drivers to have costly full-time commercial insurance even when they're not driving, as well as the need for Uber to tell TfL of any changes to its app, which it argues would slow down the roll out of new features”. Er, this is drivel. Obtaining the necessary insurance might not interest Uber, but it happens to be a requirement of their drivers doing business here. How they do that is their problem. And notifying changes to the app? Nothing more onerous than an email.

In other words, this is excuse-making writ large, and City AM should be doing better. Instead, Ms Barber has now brought readers “Business groups and entrepreneurs have piled the pressure on the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, warning that new rules clamping down on Uber will stifle innovation in the capital and its multi-billion pound digital economy as he attempts brand the city ‘open for business’”. It reads like an Uber PR release.

Instead of shilling for Uber, City AM - and all the others - might consider Uber’s enslavement of its drivers by enticing them to take on car loans and then cutting their pay, something that good libertarians might be though to be hot on. Or the claim made by Steve McNamara of the LTDA that Uber is bribing journalists to produce favourable copy.

Uber is not about technology. It is about bullying Governments into submission, flouting regulation to create business advantage, favouring the strong over the weak, and screwing over those least able to resist - the drivers who have been conned into coming on board, many of them having to exist on as little as £4 an hour, and the customers, who think they’re getting a bargain - until they, too, become captives of the app.

Why City AM is unable, or unwilling, to address any of these points I will leave for others to draw their own conclusions.

source: https://www.byline.com/column/20/article/1214

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

We voted in a Labour Mayor he met with the Unions PRIOR YES PRIOR TOi his election and committed to giving Uber a kicking as usual London demonstrates to the YOKELS how its done ........................................now take your opportunity in Manchester and Liverpool

FOLLOW THE CLEVER COCKNEYS

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Uber has big pockets and are used to slugging it out in court I hope Sad Khan & TFL have the stomach for a fight because they are taking on a heavyweight

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

As it would appear the other London PH operators don't have too many issues - I think uber are either doing this for;

1 - publicity

2 - because they cannot exist without a low paid, ill educated workforce

3 - somewhere in the world one of their drivers has been having inappropriate relations with an Alsatian and its a decent publicity avoidance avenue

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Minicab firms Addison Lee and Uber at war over Mayor's private hire rules

The biggest minicab firm in Europe has written to Sadiq Khan attacking Uber’s bid to water down tough new private hire rules.

Addison Lee, which has 5,000 licensed drivers, told the Mayor it was “indefensible” that Uber has launched legal action against Transport for London’s new rules.

The regulations include written English tests for drivers and vehicles being insured even when they are not being used as minicabs.

Uber’s London general manager Tom Elvidge said: “The goalposts have moved at the last minute”, adding that the new rules would be “bad for both drivers and companies like Uber”.

Addison Lee chief Andy Boland said Uber was trying to “undermine” the new passenger safety rules.

Mr Boland has written to the Mayor to say he continued to support the new rules. TfL said it would defend its plans in court.

source: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transpor ... 22486.html

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

So Tom old boy, how does it feel to have to comply with the rules for once? You have created perpetual serfdom for your drivers, and off there backs you enjoy a privileged lifestyle, that's you aunty Jo and your boss Travis.

It's funny how you're crying, after all you're an app aren't you? Not a private hire company who doesn't like following the rules.

A LABOUR MAYOR SHAGS THE UBER SLIME ....................................................PENNY DROPPED YET

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Hang on a minute trotters, if I remember rightly you were very pro uber at the beginning, in fact you were one of there biggest supporters ...;

NAH I SAID I WOULD DO A DEAL WITH THEM TO FOOK OFF THE HACKS AND BECAUSE WE HAD BORIS WHO WOULDNT HAVE TAKEN THEM ON LIKE SADIQ HAS

WAKEY WAKEY CREATE HAVOC GET THE PUBLICITY .........................THEN SHAG EMM

THIS IS A POLITICAL SOLUTION WHAT I ALWAYS ADVOCATE COMBINED WITH INDUSTRIAL ACTION

THE PH INDUSTRY WILL LOSE 40000 DRIVERS ON THE ENGLISH TEST .................WHICH EQUALS EARNINGS UP UP UP FILL YER BOOTS ............BY VOTING LABOUR

_________________
All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Is the correct answer.

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IDFIMH

I think TT and me were and are pro driver choice. If drivers want to work for Uber, a licensed op, then they should be able to.

Where I think TT and me differ from Uber is that we want drivers standards to improve for everyone, and that includes drivers that work with Uber.

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IDFIMH

Were close but if the majority of drivers want Uber taking out then thats what happens IN MY BOOK

Increasing English standards could take 40000 PH orf the roads ie FILL YER BOOTS TIME FOR DRIVERS

ALL THANKS TO A LABOUR MAYOR AT THE BEHEST OF THE UNIONS

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Uber are the biggest bunch of cowboy jokers to exist.
In any trade you need to know your served with a level of competence.
All ph should have to do basic knowledge test , full disclosure, full hire and reward insurance have held a uk license for Over a year.
I know the old school country drivers wouldn't have a problem with this.
And jobs must be carried out with meter as set by councils, unless an agreed price for country job .
It riles me in Edinburgh , I invest, invested a lot of time and money into running a black cab.
And someone can come along that doesn't even know Edinburgh, pay for phc license and put a 12 year old passat on the road plated .
Phc meters in Edinburgh are also set exactly as hackneys are price and distance wise, what I still don't understand is, busy Saturday night why I couldn't even charge 25% over.
How's this 4x surge etc legal.
Soz Rant over.

This policy was introduced when Boris was the Mayor.

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Grandad,