The BBC published a story on their website titled
One paragraph (reproduced below) explains the story of an Uber driver who will be working on Christmas Day because his religion celebrates the holiday on another date in January.
But scroll down to below the story.
Uber taxi driver Bereket Hagos, 34, is more than happy to work on 25 December, because it isn’t Christmas Day for him.
Bereket Hagos is happy to work on 25 December, but not 7 January
This is because Mr Hagos, an Eritrean, is a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which celebrates Christmas Day on 7 January.
So with no buses or trains running in London on 25 December, Mr Hagos is relishing a busy day, as thousands of Londoners order a taxi to visit relatives.
“There’ll be a lot of people celebrating, and I expect they’ll need to move around,” he says.
“London’s streets might seem dead on Christmas Day, but people still need transport. I’m hoping to save good money.
“Christmas in our country is quite different. We must go to church on the day, so it’s not like we can go drinking.”
A survey of Taxi and Private Hire passengers conducted by the London Assembly has found that less than half of passengers know whether a minicab is licensed, while only two thirds of black cab passengers know how to identify whether their taxi is licensed.
85 per cent of taxi and private hire passengers say it is important to know if a taxi or minicab is licensed to feel safe travelling in it.
Over the past six months, the London Assembly Transport Committee has conducted an in-depth investigation into the London cab industry – surveying both passengers and drivers.
The investigation has highlighted some worrying problems.
‘Future Proof’[1], is the Transport Committee’s report into the Taxi and Private Hire industries.
Caroline Pidgeon AM, Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee said;
“The interest in and focus on the arrival of Uber in London has become a distraction from some very serious issues facing the Taxi and Private Hire industries. Transport for London’s (TfL’s) performance as regulator and enforcer has been woefully inadequate and the interests of the passenger are being largely ignored. A strategy and vision for the future is essential in order to support the industry and provide the service that passengers require.”
“TfL needs to get to grips with the basics – such as improving signage, installing more taxi ranks and staying ahead of the rapid technological advances, putting the passenger first – which is what Londoners and our visitors expect and deserve.”
The Committee has made nineteen recommendations to the Mayor and TfL.
Those recommendations include;
REPORT FINDINGS SUMMARY:
RANKS
2207 rank spaces in Greater London – 1399 in inner London, 808 in outer London.
74 per cent of rank spaces are north of the river.
Westminster has the highest number of rank spaces with 805.
Bexley has the lowest number of rank spaces with 2.
Brent has the worst rank space to tube station ratio, with 20 tube stations but only 26 rank spaces.
***TfL currently has 77 open rank location requests and is unable to provide information on how long these requests have been outstanding.
APPS
40 per cent of passengers told us they would be more likely to use cabs if they could pay by means other than cash. There is significant appetite for new technology from both passengers and drivers, especially when it comes to booking and paying. TfL must ensure that it has the regulatory muscle, and the political will, to hold the line against developments which threaten the interests of passengers.
ENFORCEMENT
Touting is viewed by both industries as the single biggest enforcement and passenger safety issue affecting the trades. Enforcement numbers are ‘outstandingly low’, compared with other world cities. New York City has around five times more enforcement officers than London.
REGULATION
Effective communication between TfL and the trades is vital to implementing changes to the industry that will benefit passengers, but communication appears to have hit rock bottom in the last year.
A short-sighted Minicab driver who became frustrated in rush-hour traffic rammed into the back of a classic car so hard it folded like a pen-knife, killing the driver, a court heard.
Kugannesan Balasubramaniam, 31, is accused of ploughing his Peugeot people carrier into the back of the 1963 MGB convertible roadster at 48mph on the A40 Westway, near Paddington in London.
Nick Sennett, 58, who had hired the classic car for a few days, suffered serious head injuries when his car was shunted forward violently in the crash on April 16 last year.
He was knocked unconscious and paramedics spent an hour trying to save him, but the economics teacher was pronounced dead at the scene.
Balasubramaniam, of Wembley, northwest London, denies one charge of causing death by dangerous driving and is currently on trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The court heard how the minicab driver had just collected a sixth-form student from Heathrow Airport and was taking her to an address in northwest London when the collision occurred.
Prosecutor Nicholas Bleaney told the court yesterday: ‘Shortly before the collision she noticed the defendant making a mobile phone call.
‘She thinks the phone was put to his ear rather than using a hands-free system but perhaps more importantly she started to pay attention to what was going on in front of her.
‘She noticed that the traffic was building up and first thing in the morning it is by no means unusual for the traffic to build up.
‘She noticed this defendant was starting to get frustrated and slapping the steering wheel with his hands.
‘She then noticed the line of traffic in front of their car and it wasn’t clear to her whether it was completely stationary or moving slowly, but she noticed around that point that the defendant started to speed up to a speed that would be appropriate to an empty road.
‘She simply watched as the defendant drove into a car in front.
‘That proved to be Mr Sennett’s MGB, he had hired it from a classic car club for a few days and the impact shunted it into the car in front.’
Mr Sennett, 53, an economics teacher at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, suffered serious head injuries in the crash after the classic car ‘folded like a pen-knife’. He was pronounced dead at the scene
Mr Sennett was driving a 1963 MGB convertible roadster (similar to the one above) when the crash occurred
The force of Balasubramaniam’s ramming also shunted cars ahead of the MGB, causing a four-car crash in total, jurors heard.
‘Essentially it [the MGB] folded like a pen-knife,’ said Mr Bleaney.
‘He hit his head on the windscreen and suffered some chest injuries but the main injury was a very serious head injury and sadly he did not regain consciousness and he was pronounced dead at the scene.’
The court heard how Balasubramaniam told officers at the scene that the vintage car had pulled suddenly in front of him, into his braking distance.
Mr Bleaney said: ‘It is the prosecution’s case that is simply a lie and coupled with evidence from a number of sources shows that the driving of the defendant fell far below the standard of the ordinary, competent, careful driver and was therefore dangerous.
‘It is the prosecution’s case that far from moving into the defendant’s path, Mr Sennett and the MG had been there all the time and was there to be seen and should have been seen and the defendant should have stopped behind him in the normal way.’
Southwark Crown Court heard the incident occurred in rush-hour traffic on the A40 near Paddington, London, on April 16 last year (file picture)
Balasubramaniam had been driving a replacement vehicle while his own car was at the garage, it was said.
A tracking device inside the vehicle recorded the minicab driver was speeding at 48mph on the 40mph road, jurors heard.
The court also heard how he was overworked, having worked 90 hours in the previous seven days for the cab hire company One to One.
‘It is the prosecution’s case that he was over-tired when he was driving and over-tired in circumstances where he had gone into that situation for commercial gain,’ Mr Bleaney said.
The short-sighted driver also failed a basic numberplate-reading eye test when officers attended the scene, the court heard.
Mr Bleaney added: ‘It is the prosecution’s case that notwithstanding everything else, he was driving that day with inadequate eye sight.’
Heartfelt tributes were paid to Mr Sennett, who taught at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, following his death.
In a letter to parents, the school’s headmaster David Goodhew said: ‘In the coming weeks, colleagues and students will give thought to how they wish to commemorate this much-valued teacher and friend.’
He added: ‘It is clear he touched the lives of so many and is remembered with tremendous warmth and affection. The school has lost a great teacher, a dear tutor and a good friend.’
Chef Heston Blumenthal, who attended the £15,700-a-year school, also paid tribute to Mr Sennett.
Following his death, he told the Evening Standard: ‘What made Nick stand out was his very calm, playful banter.
‘He was one of those teachers you could be very comfortable around. He was really lovable, really funny, chilled out.’
Mr Sennett, lived in Chiswick and taught at the Hammersmith school for five years. As well as teaching economics, he was also a sixth form tutor, coached the year nine rowing team and ran the school’s Young Enterprise scheme, which helps pupils start their own businesses.
Balasubramaniam denies a single charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
The trial continues.
Nabeela Khan accepted the blame for driving 40mph through a 30mph zone in the Addison Lee taxi used by her husband Shazad Naz (pictured outside court)
A law student who took speeding penalty points for her minicab driver husband has today avoided jail.
Nabeela Khan, 37, accepted the blame and paid a fine for driving 40mph through a 30mph zone in the Addison Lee minicab used by Shazad Naz, 38.
The couple, both of Tomswood Hill, Ilford, were caught out when police were tipped off that Naz had been on duty at the time.
The court heard Naz was caught by a speeding camera near London’s Tower Hill as he took a fare from Covent Garden to Ilford, east London, in the early hours of September 1, 2012.
The following month the police received a form back from Naz stating that his wife was the driver.
Khan’s licence was endorsed with penalty points and she paid the fine by cheque in February 2013.
Prosecutor Dickon Reid said: ‘The police later obtained information from Addison Lee confirming it was Mr Naz who was at work.
‘Khan said in a statement she had been doing her accounts and it came to her that it was not her and it was her partner.
‘She said she had made an honest mistake as she used his minicab to drive around as it was more comfortable than hers.’
Although the couple claimed they made an honest mistake, jurors at the Old Bailey convicted them both of perverting the course of justice.
The judge, Mr Recorder Caplan QC, gave the couple suspended prison sentences after accepting it was a ‘spontaneous act’.
Khan and her husband claimed they made a mistake but jurors at the Old Bailey convicted them both
He said: ‘I am sure you never expected to find yourselves on trial in court one at the Old Bailey when you completed the forms in connection with the speeding offence.
‘Quite why you both decided on taking that course when Mr Naz had only three points on his licence remains a mystery.
‘Offences of this kind are rightly regarded as very serious as they undermine the interests of justice.’
The judge told Khan: ‘You have studied hard for a legal career and it is a tragedy this will prevent you, at least for a while, from pursuing that career of your choice.’
Naz was sentenced to eight months suspended for 18 months and Khan to six months suspended for 18 months.
The judge also ordered Naz to pay £1,000 towards prosecution costs at a rate of £50 a month.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
When taxi firm Uber quadrupled its prices during the Sydney embassy siege, there was uproar not just in Sydney – but around the world.
Uber’s rapid reverse to make fares from the area around the siege free didn’t do much to help.
The term Uber was quickly trending on Twitter in Britain and elsewhere – the second time in a week Uber had trended, both times for overwhelmingly negative reasons.
The previous story, about a London Uber driver allegedly asking a passenger to perform oral sex on him, is said to have ended with the company offering £20 in Uber credit as compensation.
The reactions of Twitter users perhaps sum up some people’s feelings towards the company:
Uber surge pricing during Sydney hostage situation. Billions of dollars. No common sense. http://mashable.com/2014/12/14/uber-sydney-surge-pricing/?utm_source=digg …
“Uber briefly quadruples prices for rides out of hostage-crisis Sydney” http://bit.ly/1suymwP
So why do people hate Uber so much? We round up the reasons below.
YES
19%
81%
Results from Metro Survey
Uber aims to ‘deregulate’ taxis – but regulations can be there for a reason
Uber services have been banned in countries including Spain and Thailand for not complying with regulations.
In London, the service met from fierce opposition from black cab drivers – who argue that Uber drivers compete unfairly by offering a metered service in a city where other metered cab drivers have to train for years (The Knowledge).
One of the company’s services, UberPop (its cheapest, not available in all countries), allows anyone with a car to become a taxi driver.
UberPop was banned in France after taxi drivers threatened to strike.
Sexual attack cases keep popping up
As well as the London case, a reported rape in New Delhi led to Uber services being banned in the city.
The case led to concerns that Uber’s deregulated approach did not offer enough protection to consumers.
Uber keeps data about every taxi journey
Uber has faced controversy over how it uses data – after staff allegedly accessed journalists’ customer profiles with the company.
Uber’s apps make a record of every journey taken with the company – and there have been concerns over how this data is used.
People keep giving Uber money
Despite Uber having had a ‘troubled’ year, investors keep pouring in money – and the company is now valued at $40 billion, as much as General Motors.
Uber argues that the violent reaction of taxi firms to its service comes from an antiquated and protectionist industry, which is ripe for a technological update.
While people around the world have reservations, investors seem to agree.
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