Uber in London

Jezza99

Fanboy

TheAdmiralCS

Enoughs enough. I'm going to start handing out warnings again if this carries on. I won't tolerate any abuse of members. If you can't be civil, step away from the keyboard. Last chance.

Bl4ckGryph0n

I’ve signed it....

Sign the Petition

springtide

Seems to me this is a good thing if this is right..

The scandal that brought Uber down

It seems Uber are interested in making money with disregard to public safety. 32 sexual assault incidents in London in one year, with even the Police contacting London transport about Uber.
Uber will be back, but hopefully with better regulation.
It's good for the industry not bad; it will will help laydown frameworks for governance for these and future Technologies.

t bone

Let's put it this way you are a trader in the city and a foreign company designed a app that allows anyone to trade on it, and The governing body allows it to happen all hell would break loose. That is essentially what is happening in the cab trade.

The knowledge of London is a unique system that that takes on average four years to complete equivalent to a degree at a University, when you sign up to be a cabdriver you enter into a contract that States you are the only vehicle that can ply for hire and have a meter in it. But for Uber things are somehow different An iPhone is not a meter, and the map knowledge required is laughable. This dumbing down is a trend that is sweeping the country at the moment you see it with our doctors and nurses the fire brigade even the police. The culprit here is the governing body's TfL they are the ones that let this situation get this far rolling over for billion dollar company  just check out David Cameron shady pass with uber and as for Boris Johnson PLEASE.

And the net result of all this in the pursuit of a couple of pounds cheaper cab ride you are willing to risk your life with someone who barely  knows where he's going and he's only aid is to keep his eyes on a iPhone and not on the road. I would never let my wife or daughter ride in a uber the higher-ups in that company failed to report rapes and sexual assaults, come on what more do you need to know about this company. And just to round it off the guy who crash into Buckingham Palace yes you've guessed it was an Uber driver.

Bl4ckGryph0n

The article and the letter within seem to suggest different things. Don’t get me wrong, 32 incidents are 32 incidents too many, but 32 incidents across 40,000 TfL licensed drivers is 0.08% of the drivers being involved.

Also the re-checks that were required wasn’t because Uber did them wrong, they don’t do them It was because TfL changed its policy regarding some of their partners. It was TfL themselves who caused this.

I agree that TfL needs to be very clear about the rules and what they mean such that the industry as a whole can improve.

Bl4ckGryph0n

It is not just Uber and a foreign company though. There are other local apps like Addison Lee and even the taxi drivers themselves tried to launch an app a bit late.

The competition here is against mini cabs not black cabs.

Out of interest, and considering the Uber drivers undergo EXACTLY the same criminal record checks as taxi drivers, why would you prefer your wife/daughter ride with a taxi where you can’t retrace their movements, nor the driver, there is not necessarily a record of their payments and they do not know the driver and the drivers feedback upfront?

For what measurable reason do you feel they are safer with a black cab driver?

t bone

I couldn't disagree more.

Our police are far better trained. They do far more technical things with cybercrime and the like, the level of counseling for victims and crimes like rape, their dealings with the mentally ill...

Similarly with nurses. Do you know how much training they actually need to do just to keep their registration? Let alone that for qualified nurses it is rapidly becoming a degree level position.

I don't particularly agree with your stance on Uber either. They are certainly not a paragon of good governance, but black cabs are not either. (I remember many years ago a German colleague visiting London being done for £100  by a driver who deliberately took a longer route. London Bridge to Canary Wharf and she said they drove past Trafalgar Square).

Things move on, it just needs regulation to move too. We need regulation that takes into account operators like Uber and doesn't try to shoehorn them into fitting a pre-internet model of regulation.

Bl4ckGryph0n

That's the point they did not do the enhance Criminal check's yes I agree a yet another failing by TfL on the contrary they are numerous black taxi apps available  that offer The ability to retrace their movements, also on the back and inside of a cab your have the Cabs ID number that carries all the relevant information,plus the driver has a badge around his neck again with a unique number on it.

You ask Why I prefer my family to travel in a black cab it's simple really I prefer to trust in an institution that has been going on for 300 years with minimum reports of rape and sexual assaults not to mention violence against other passengers. I will concede there are bad apples in every branch but I'm willing to bet that no time in the black cab history it's been so many allegations of rape and sexual assault and violence in one year so much so that the metropolitan police have complained about such practices to TfL/ Government. I go with the analogy better to be safe than sorry.

t bone

Do you realise how many sexual assaults there are reported on public transport?

I’d argue that in light of the comparison those black cabs aren’t hailed as private hire cars through the app. Otherwise they aren’t black cabs so no there simply isn’t that level of track and trace and totally reliant on ANPR.

How would you know the badge number of a taxi driver when you weren’t in the taxi? How would you know it’s registration number when you weren’t in the taxi. Do you take down their details from the little card they display each time you get in the vehicle?

Don’t get me wrong, I get the sentiment I just don’t get the actual measurable difference.