SuperCabby Interviews Russell Howarth from Arresting Uber Via Skype in Oz 30

SuperCabby Interviews Russell Howarth from Arresting Uber 30

pIUs7j_b_400x400In this episode I interview Russell Howarth from Arresting Uber again in a follow up via Skype.

Russell returned to Australia after his visit to London and has been doing a lot of work with various Taxi Trades around the World to combat the rise of what he calls a Criminal Cartel, Uber.

Russell explains his plans for combating Uber in London and also shared a few ideas that are not in this podcast as he didn’t want Uber to know exactly what his ideas are.

Russell fully intends to return to the UK and he explains how this can happen during the interview, he also says that our trade really needs to come together and unite for a common cause in fighting these tech startups.

Russell is the guy, who in Australia has made citizens arrests on Uber X drivers for operating illegally without the correct licenses or insurance.

Russell states that he has managed, through his actions, to lose Uber over 60% of their business in Australia and he is being commended by both Taxi and Limo drivers across Australia.

Russell has travelled to the UK at his own expense and is here for nearly a month to talk to Taxi Trade Organisations and he also has a meeting scheduled towards the end of the month with Leon Daniels at TFL.

Russell has a lot of ideas as to the way in which the London Taxi trade can combat the phenomenal growth of Uber in London and to thwart their attempts at cornering the market in London and the UK as a whole.

Russell also said that any driver that is any doubts as to the effect that Uber could have on the London Taxi & Private Hire trades in London should speak to any driver in America where Uber operates, he said that Taxi drivers have found that they are now taking 75% less than they were before, so if you think you can sustain running a a London Taxi on a mere 25% or what you currently earn, pay the mortgage and put food on the table then please carry on burying your heads in the sand!

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Russell has some good angles on how to combat Uber, he recognises that Uber are licensed in London and that the drivers are also licensed by TFL but he also says that there are a number of points on which Uber are breaking the law.

You can follow Russell on Twitter @arrestinguber or take a look at the Arresting Uber website

No woman is safe in a minicab, says rape judge

A judge issued an alarming warning to minicab passengers yesterday that they cannot expect to travel in safety.

Jailing an asylum seeker for eight years for raping a secretary, Recorder Michael Sayers, QC, said those hiring a private taxi simply had no way of knowing the driver’s background.

He called for compulsory licensing of all cab drivers after police checks on the firm where the rapist worked revealed that not one driver was being legally employed.

“It appears that nobody can travel in minicabs with any degree of assurance or safety, as demonstrated by the facts in this case,” said the judge.

“At the moment, when a member of the public takes a cab he has no assurance that the driver is who he claims to be or has got any insurance or driving licence. He has no way of knowing how the driver conducts his business.

“This is something that should be investigated. If minicab drivers are driving around with false identities, it is something that should be looked into and investigated properly. I find it quite a worrying state of affairs.”

The case has highlighted a growing problem in our cities, where a burgeoning nightclub culture and lack of public transport has led to a boom in the use of minicabs.

These are separate from licensed black cabs and are supposed to be booked in advance over the telephone or in person at a central office.

There are around 100,000 private hire drivers in the UK. Powers to license them have been on the statute book since 1998 but the law’s enforcement depends heavily on the policy of the local authority.

In London, men and women desperate to get home have resorted to hailing unlicensed “taxi touts” who ply for trade by driving through the city’s entertainment areas.

Police figures show that 214 women were sexually assaulted in the capital last year after getting into illegal minicabs and 54 raped.

Razaq Assadullah, 31, who worked for Speedline Cars in Stratford, East London, was an asylum seeker who came to Britain from Afghanistan in 2000.

He was convicted last December

of raping the 28-year-old secretary and was sentenced at the Old Bailey yesterday.

In a reference to the rapist’s background, the judge told him: “You were certainly aware of the gravity of the crime of rape as it would be met by a sentence of death by stoning.”

The woman got into the cab after a night out in a wine bar in Stratford last July.

After dropping off her best friend, Assadullah parked the car and turned off the engine before attacking the woman in the back seat. He stopped only when disturbed by two cyclists.

The Old Bailey heard that Assadullah, from Plaistow, East London, set himself up as a cab driver by buying a false driving licence for £200 and using a false name. Police checks revealed he was driving without insurance.

Further inquiries into the rapist’s firm revealed that each of its 32 drivers was working illegally in some way – either through their immigration status or by claiming benefit while working. In such situations, it is best to contact expert attorneys helping clients with immigration claims to give legal counseling and help you out.

The judge told Assadullah: “With a mixture of arrogance and cynical opportunism you abused your position of trust.

“She was placed in your cab by a friend who paid you to get her home safely.

“She was put through a terrifying ordeal and she faced the added trauma of not knowing whether you might be a murderer as well as a rapist.”

Assadullah, a father of three, was granted leave to remain last year after claiming he had been tortured by the Taliban. The judge recommended his deportation.

Richard Massett, of the London Taxi Drivers’ Association, said: “It’s been five years since regulation was approved in Parliament and nothing has happened.

“We advise women travelling home alone late at night to use a licensed black cab if possible or, if not, to book a minicab by phone and ensure that it comes from the place where they booked it.”

Detective Constable Malcolm Samuels, of the Metropolitan Police, said that because many minicab drivers work on a self-employed basis there is little incentive for the firm’s owner to check on them.

Source: Mail Online

Hailo lays off 17 London employees

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Taxi-hailing app Hailo has laid off 17 employees in London, out of its 150 employees worldwide, as part of a plan to “rebalance its engineering structure” and “shift focus towards accelerating our business growth and operational delivery off the back of this platform,” according to CEO Andrew Pinnington.

The company also said the last quarter was “the strongest sales quarter in the company’s history, with double-digit month-on-month growth.”

TechCrunch has reported that it is also looking to raise $20 million in a new funding round, although the company has not commented on this.

In October 2014, Hailo pulled out of the US after being unable to compete in a market in which rivals Uber and Lyft were engaged in a price war, and at the same time announced new products such as Pay with Hailo and Hailo for Business.

It now operates in five markets – UK, Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Spain.

In late 2013 and early 2014, Hailo received $50 million in funding from a group of Asian investors “to expedite growth in the more than 20 cities” in which it operates, and to date has raised just over $100 million.

Compared to this, Uber has raised $4.9 billion to date and Lyft has raised $862.5 million.

But Hailo differs from its competitors in that it helps people book and pay for black and yellow cabs via the app rather than running its own fleet.

The company also has an Apple Watch app on the way.

Taxi app Gett gears up for next stage of cab wars: deliveries

Gett, the cab-hailing app previously known as GetTaxi, will now allow users to book beauty appointments, call for household services and order food deliveries

Uber, Hailo, Kabbee and Gett are four of the technology companies shaking up the cab sector

The cab-hailing app GetTaxi is driving the next stage of the taxi technology revolution by launching a delivery service that will allow users to order food, beauty treatments and other services to their homes.

The company – which is also rebranding itself Gett – claims to be the first taxi app to branch out from its core transportation services and offer users a “permanent and broader” offering across its global operations.

Meanwhile, Uber announced the launch of UberEATS, a service that promises to deliver your food order within 10 minutes, following successful trials in Los Angeles and Barcelona. However, this feature is only available to users in New York.

Uber has also dabbled in other localised projects, such as a courier service in Manhattan and a moving service in Hong Kong

“It was expected that the [taxi app] industry would expand – it was just a matter of time,” said Gett founder and chief executive Shahar Waiser. “There are many operational difficulties and the industry had to mature to be ready to expand.”

Shahar Waiser, Gett founder and CEO

Mr Waiser declined to discuss which services would be available when the delivery feature launches in July, but said “think Gett Pizza, Gett Sushi, Gett Grocery, Gett Wine, Gett Flowers, Gett Dry Cleaning and Gett Plumber” as well as the current Gett Black Taxi.

The new services will be provided either by local services that have been approved by Gett, such as beauticians and electricians, or in the case of the food feature, by one of a number of large partners that will enable Gett to guarantee delivery within 10 minutes.

Mr Waiser said that the new options “have nothing to do with our drivers, they have enough work to do without delivering pizzas” and that transportation will remain “at the heart of Gett’s business”.

Gett currently has about 20,000 tax drivers in the 32 global cities in which it operates, including more than 6,000 black cabbies in London and another 2,000 across Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow.

While the Tel Aviv-born company stressed its “ongoing commitment to black cabs”, Mr Waiser said he is “absolutely sure” this is the future of the war-torn industry.

“Three years ago people did not consume taxi apps in the way that they do now. A year from now, we won’t know how we lived without this,” he said. “The only thing we don’t have enough of is time. Everything else you can buy, so a service that helps you to save time – what could be more important and valuable?”

 

 

Last month, Starbucks announced that it would start delivering coffees in New York, while Burger King recently launched a home delivery service in the UK.

The on-demand economy has spawned a number of apps that allow users to order services at the touch of a button, from food delivery apps such as Just Eat and Hungry House to those that download novels and films, book beauty services, buy tickets to social events and, of course, hail taxis.

Gett is on track to generate $500m (£330m) in revenues this year from its transportation business, which Mr Waiser said grows at 300pc per year, and expects that to increase significantly with its new features.

Source: The Telegraph