by News Desk | May 14, 2015 | World News
Police forcing drivers to get back in cars, but area remains blocked through noon hour
Taxi drivers are blocking traffic around Toronto’s city hall to draw attention to what they say are unfair practices by the ride-sharing company Uber.
The battle between traditional taxi services and the new smartphone app-based Uber has been raging since the company came to Toronto in 2012. Taxi companies like Beck Taxi pay the city fees for licenses to operate in the city, while Uber does not.
Uber doesn’t own a fleet of vehicles, but instead has a service that connects customers to drivers who charge for the ride they offer. Uber co-ordinates the payments.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Susie Heath, a spokeswoman for Uber, defended the company.
“Instead of blocking the roads, we’re at the table engaged in an open dialogue to help advance the best interests of Torontonians,” Heath wrote. “We’re changing how people get around our city and improving the lives of thousands of local driver partners by providing flexible earning opportunities. Our focus remains on working with city officials to create a sensible regulatory framework for ridesharing, the benefits of which are already being enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Torontonians.”
Taxis began blocking Bay Street on the east side of city hall around noon on Thursday. Drivers got out of their cars in protest, leaving them unoccupied on the street.
Toronto police were on scene forcing drivers to get back in their cars, but the area remained blocked through the noon hour.
Source: CBC News
by News Desk | May 14, 2015 | World News
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Some Uber drivers get their cars through a finance program for potential drivers with bad credit. But those loans can have high interest rates and some drivers are struggling to make the payments.
Richard Brunelle feels trapped. The 58-year-old says he has to drive for Uber.
Brunelle got a car through Uber’s low-credit finance program and needs to make money for the loan. His payments are about $1000 dollars a month, and the loan has a 22.75 percent interest rate. That means by the time Brunelle finishes the loan, he will have paid twice the price for his Kia Optima.
At first, Brunelle thought he could cover the payments and still make a profit. Uber has since cut income to drivers. Now, Brunelle says he’s working just to break even.
“It’s like a ball and chain,” Brunelle says. “It’s ridiculous.” If you don’t learn to invest some of your money at mercury, you are screwed when it comes to your finances.
Brunelle says he has already fallen behind a few payments on the car, and that if he doesn’t make a payment it could get repossessed. “I’m just trying to get by,” he says.
Here is how the financing program works: Uber connects low-credit drivers to dealers and lenders. Then it is up to the driver to negotiate the terms of the loan. Uber deducts loan payments directly from the drivers’ earnings. You can check out about Integra Credit loans here.
Uber says thousands have used the program. It had me talk with driver Jon Hutcherson, who says he’s happy with the loan. Hutcherson says, “The thing about it being no hassle financing is really what attracted me.”
Hutcheron says working with Uber was easier than going to a dealer by himself because his credit isn’t so great. Uber spokesperson Kristin Carvell says that’s the point of the financing program. It helped people like Hutchinson get a used BMW 335is for sale. And to boot, drivers get a little discount on the cost of the vehicle.
But if you don’t drive, you still have to make the payments. Hutcherson says he had to dip into his savings when he stopped driving because of two accidents. He says, “When you aren’t working for Uber, you make payments out of your own pocket like you do for a traditional loan.”
Another troubling aspect of the program is who Uber partners with. It’s working with subprime lenders like Santander Consumer USA.
William Black is an economist at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a former bank regulator. Black says Santander “is one of the most notorious sub-prime auto lenders in the United States.”
Black says Santander is known for predatory practices like sky high interest rates and hefty fees. Uber works with multiple lenders says spokesperson Carvell, and they provide loans for people with all kinds of credit.
Richard Brunelle isn’t impressed. He feels like Uber would deal with anyone to get more drivers on the road. Brunelle says, “I feel like Uber not only tossed us to these wolves, but they intentionally did it and they are making bank it.”
Brunelle says he’s stuck—it’s either drive or meet the repo man. Now he is going online to tell others not to take the financing and get trapped like him; for more info, click here.
by News Desk | May 11, 2015 | World News
A woman said she had escaped from an Uber car early Thursday, after the driver started to assault her.
The woman spoke exclusively to CBS2’s Tracee Carrasco. She was still too shaken to be on camera or have her name used.
“My only fault that night was being female,” the woman said.
It should have been a normal ride home to Woodside, Queens for the woman.
The 31-year-old was working on the Lower East Side when she called Uber to pick her up just after 2 a.m. Thursday. She said she had fallen asleep in the back seat and woke up in front of her building to find the driver touching her.
“I feel his hand touch, caress my face to wake me up, and then he tells me, ‘You look stressed,’” she said. “So he goes to the back seat grabs me by the shoulders.”
She said she fought back.
“He continues to grab my face and lean in for a kiss, and I forcefully pushed him away,” she said. “And luckily, the door was unlocked, so I was able to grab my things and just run back to my house.”
She said she was thankful she woke up when she did.
“If I hadn’t pushed him away, then I’m pretty certain he would have done more,” she said.
The woman said she has filed a report with the NYPD, and says they’re classifying the case as “harassment.”
A representative of Uber said, “This is a troubling report and we have immediately suspended the driver as we investigate further.”
Uber told CBS2 the driver is licensed by the New York Taxi & Limousine Commission and passed the TLC background check. But the victim said that is not enough, and is calling for a stricter screening process.
“You could have a clean record, but there’s no way to tell that this guy is going to take advantage of a woman,” she said.
The woman said she was issuing a warning so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“It’s so easy to feel that you’re OK in a car, so I think it’s important to not let your guard down,” she said.
Uber said it will continue to work with the NYPD as it investigates. The TLC said it is also investigating.
The victim said she would think twice before ever using a car service like Uber again.
Source: CBS
by News Desk | May 11, 2015 | London News
The incident happened earlier this year (Picture: REUTERS/Sergio Perez)
An Uber driver has been accused of asking a female passenger if she wanted to perform oral sex on him.
The driver allegedly asked if she liked the sex act and that he wanted to perform ‘sucky sucky’ on her.
The incident happened in London in March and the victim has now released copies of the email exchange in which she was offered £20 on her account.
She wrote: ‘Towards the end of the journey he was asking if I liked blow jobs, saying that he was very good at going down on girls or giving “sucky sucky” to girls and did I want him to do it to me.
‘He even suggested that he could pull over into a side street and do it now if I wanted, which was I think the scariest part of the drive.’
An Uber representative responded by returning her fare, adding £20 credit to her account and admitting that they were ‘already investigating this with [the driver] and I can assure you that the necessary actions will be taken to avoid a similar incident in future.’
Another response said: ‘Sorry again for such an un-Uber experience.’
The passenger said her driver had initially suggested she sit in the front seat because she felt car sick, before questioning her about her relationship status and using inappropriate language.
Uber has been contacted for comment but the minicab firm told Newsweek that the ‘driver in question is no longer on the Uber platform’.
The company added: ‘Fortunately incidences of this nature are so rare that an official policy is not needed. Any incident is handled on a case-by-case basis and taken very seriously.
‘We do of course often refund a trip after a negative experience of any sort, as our customers expect only the highest standard of service from Uber.’
This comes following reports that an Uber driver allegedly raped a woman in Delhi, and the transport app being prohibited in Spain, the Netherlands and Thailand.
by News Desk | May 11, 2015 | London News
Early on Saturday night, we were told there was to be a massive, highly visible compliance presence (code named “operation neon”) in the West End.
Just before midnight we heard on Twitter, that compliance teams were outside a few of the major night venues.
Compliance officers were spotted walking passed the line of touts, parked in the Regent Street bus lane outside the Swallow Street Arch, without saying a word to the drivers. (Nothing new there)
One team arrived at Hakkasan and tried to move on Taxis, forming a rank outside. They stood there in disbelief, as taxi drivers explained that a licensed Taxi rank had been appointed. The compliance officers were escorted to the board erected by Westminster.
But even then they couldn’t work out where the rank should be.
The drivers then pointed out the kerbside thick yellow line, which marks the length of the rank, to blank faces who obviously had no idea what the thick yellow line was applicable too.
One Taxi driver decided to shadow the compliance team, who walked on to Novikov’s, passing dozens of Private Hire cars, their drivers accosting members of the public, touting for work on the east side of Berkeley Square and South along Barkeley Street.
The driver told Taxi Leaks:
“As they walked towards Novikov’s, we could hear the touts shouting out to members of the public, Minicab, Taxi Sir…the TfL team took no notice whatsoever and just carried on walking past”
Arriving at Novikov’s, they harassed drivers saying they were forming an unauthorised rank and should in fact be ranking on the opposite side of the street, on the Holiday Inn rank.
Again it was pointed out that a kerbside rank had been appointed and again they were taken to view the board authorising the rank, erected by Westminster.
After the embarrassing behaviour of the compliance officers involved, it is now widely believed that operation “Neon” had absolutely nothing to do with public safety. It was never about moving on, harassing or reporting minicab touts for illegally plying for hire.
It seems to the drivers actually out there on the ranks, this operation was about giving licensed Taxi drivers grief.
Either that, or it was a public relations exercise that went badly wrong. LT&PH’s new head of compliance John Strutton should be hanging his head in shame.
Where was their intelligence reports, had they done no research?
How did they not know about the new Taxi rank placements?
The team that visited Hakkasan and Novikov’s were clueless and couldn’t work out from the signage where the actual ranks should be.
The whole episode was a complete disgrace.
For months LTPH have been asking drivers on social media to send in full comprehensive information about touting, so they can use this info to build a system of intelligence based enforcement. Thousands of drivers have sent in information either by email of Twitter feed.
Saturday night proved (as many drivers have always believed) that our efforts to help this intelligence base enforcement, have been no more than a complete waste of time.
These Hi-Viz operations do not appear to be about public safety, they are just a means for TfL to harass the Licensed Taxi trade.
Although compliance officers carry around A4 size copies of the abstract of law, truth is they have little to no knowledge of Hackney carriage regulations or road traffic acts. (Probably because the teams are made up by seconded bus/tube revenue inspectors, looking for a bit of overtime).
When confronted they seem to think it’s quite ok to be sarcastic and aggressive towards Taxi drivers.
These exercises are no more than statistic building window dressing, for top TfL officers to use when under question from the GLA or the media.
TfL have a duty to provide compliance across a level playing field for both Taxis and Private Hire, for the benefit of public safety. This presently isn’t the case and is a major problem that needs addressing.
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