Uber has extended an “olive branch” to black cab drivers, offering them a year’s free usage of the app but also criticising the world-famous Knowledge.
In a post on their company blog today, Uber’s Jo Bertram wrote: “From today black cab drivers will be able to use the ‘TAXI’ option on Uber’s app to connect to paying customers with zero service fee for the first twelve months.
“For Londoners it means they can order a traditional black cab at the push of a button and pay electronically through their phone, rather than worrying about cash. For taxi drivers it’s a chance to get a fare when there are no passengers on the street or they’re waiting in a long queue at a rank.”
Although this offer was intended as an apparent peace offering, an attack on The Knowledge went down less well.
Uber’s blog said: “The Knowledge, for instance, is rightly legendary. But it means memorising 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks – a skill that can take up to four years to master.
“In the age of GPS and live traffic apps, is such an onerous test still needed? Could a modern version of The Knowledge that took advantage of new technology and only took a year to complete be just as effective?”
Taxi groups have reacted to the comments, describing them as a “PR stunt” and “posturing”.
Source: LBC
Many drivers complain that every time we demo, the media say it’s about Uber
Well, lets get one thing straight
UBER are not the elephant in the room!
UBER are at the centre of our demise.
If we are scared to mention Uber, then we’ve already lost.
This demo is directed towards Downing Street, to highlight the fact that the government’s no1 and no2 are heavily involved in supporting this company, at our expense.
TfL, on orders from this government have turned a blind eye to existing regulations in order to facilitate the expansion of UBER. You don’t have to be a genius to work out their agenda.
We are not frightened of competition and this demo is not about fair competition
It’s about unfair completion.
Watch passionate speech from Trevor Merrells, Campaign Manager of the UCG
Uber will allow black cabs to appear on its app and be chosen by users who would pay electronically through their phone.
Uber has offered to allow black cabs to appear on its app and be chosen by users who would pay electronically through their
London black-cab drivers have rejected an apparent olive branch from Uber as a “PR stunt” after the taxi-hailing app company said it would extend its service free to the traditional trade.
Uber has modified its app to allow black-cab drivers in London to be available as a choice for its customers, with zero commission, for the next 12 months.
But the LTDA, representing cab drivers, said it would be “amazed” if any took up the offer, with other black-cab apps already available.
Uber said it was trying to take the heat out of a debate that has become increasingly fraught, including court battles and strikes by cab drivers – who are planning further action on Wednesday.
Jo Bertram, Uber’s UK general manager, said: “We believe that black cabs and Uber can coexist … As even the most avid Uber users know, there are many times when a black cab is the fastest and best option because it is literally right there on the street in front of you. There is zero waiting time and you can whizz along the bus lane.
“We also believe that Uber can help black cabs reach new passengers so they get more custom.”
Uber’s change will allow black cabs to appear on the app, and be chosen by users who would pay electronically through their phone. Bertram said it was a chance for black-cab drivers to get a fare when there were no passengers on the street or they were waiting in a long queue at a rank.
But McNamara said: “With over 15,000 cabbies registered with specific taxi-hailing apps like Gett and Hailo, we would be amazed if any drivers decide to take up Uber’s offer. Licensed taxis in London offer the best service in the world and, as a membership group, the LTDA doesn’t like the way Uber treats its drivers and customers or its dodgy tax arrangements.
“We haven’t been consulted on this at all: it’s just another PR stunt from a company that spends £250,000 every month on lobbying and PR. The response is ‘thanks, but no thanks’.”
About 5,000 taxi drivers plan to protest in London on Wednesday over deregulation of the trade, which black-cab drivers believe favours private hire firms with “light touch” checks.
Unite, the union representing many of London’s 25,000 taxi drivers, said the issues in the capital extended throughout the UK. It claims a flooded market, with about 10,000 new drivers a year being licensed in the city, was driving down standards and putting passenger safety at risk.
A Unite representative, Jim Kelly, said: “We feel that Uber exploits its drivers by using their self-employed status to extract maximum income from them which translates to those drivers working long hours. The reduction in safety for passengers because of the ‘light touch’ regime is to be deplored. It is a race to the bottom – when in 2016 we want the highest possible standards.
“The London taxi fleet is 100% wheelchair accessible. There is no compulsion on private hire operators, such as Uber, to provide for these passengers.”
Source: Guardian
A leaked email has come into our possession with details of a European Commission study into taxis, private hire and ridesharing services with the view to forming a regulatory framaework from their findings.
I am contacting you regarding a study on passenger transport by taxi, hire car with driver and ridesharing in the European Union that is being conducted by the European Commission.
The IRU has been contacted by Grimaldi Studio Legale, to which the study has been awarded, and in this context, I would like to share with you four questionnaires which were developed in order to gather both qualitative and quantative data and inputs on the current situation and developments in the European Union member states
It appears that the European Commission have contacted the IRU, International Road Transport Union, and although they have a page on their website regarding taxis https://www.iru.org/en_taxi we do not know of any association with either the Taxi or Private Hire trades in the UK.
So it would appear that the European Commission are prepared to discuss and legislate on this matter without consulting either the Taxi or Private Hire trades in the UK.
It is rather important to mention that the European Commission intends to use the results of the study for an informed assessment of the possible further regulatory or enforcement activities in this area. Therefore, in order to ensure that the interests of the taxi and hire car with driver industry is well represented in this study, it is crucial that you use this extremely important opportunity to inform the Commission of the situation in the UK and your position. It is important to mention that London is also among the 8 cities to be used as in-depth case studies.
So as we can see from the excerpt from the leaked email London is to be used as a case study, so we find it extremely disturbing that the Commission have failed to contact any of the driver organisations in London.
It would appear that by including ridesharing into the discussion the European Commission could well be intending to introduce some form of regulatory framework to legalise ridesharing services such as UberPop where the driver does not need to be licensed in any form whatsoever.
This would be a devastating blow to both the Taxi and Private Hire trades within the UK as it would totally undermine any current form of licensing currently in place by allowing these unlicensed and unchecked drivers to compete with traditional trades without having to comply with strict regulations.
The person who came by this email replied with the following statement:
I should emphasise that no one in the United Kingdom wants to see ridesharing giving permission by Brussels and we would take this opportunity to remind the commission it is not competent in this area, this is quite clearly a “taxi-like” service and is accordingly within the scope of the Services Directive. “Ridesharing” of the kind contemplated by Uber would be a disaster for London.
One has to ask how can London be used as a case study without consulting anyone within the industry for their input into this important subject that could affect many thousands of working men and women.
The leaked email had four questionnaires attached aimed at:
taxis and private hire vehicle operators
innovative service providers
public authorities
consumers’ and transport users
In London it could be considered that every Taxi driver is an operator due to the self employed status of the job, so surely when discussing such an important issue affecting taxi drivers you would think that the Commission would have wanted responses from within the Taxi Trade, but obviously not.
Is this just another authority that is trying to mislead those within an industry by stating that they have sought the views of stakeholders by involving the IRU, an organisation that has no connections to the trade that the Commission intend to use as a case study and possibly form a regulatory framework from their findings.
To view an example of one of the questionnaires please click on the link below
I started driving a cab for one reason. It was the only way a working-class boy like me could be his own boss. My grandad and my father both worked theLondon docks as poorly paid temporary labourers, never knowing if there was work for them when they got to the gates each day, always at the mercy of unscrupulous bosses. That sort of insecurity is a horror best left in the past, but if Uber is allowed to have its way in the capital driving a cab will no longer offer an escape route.
I never wanted to be drawn into politics. Before my trade began to be “disrupted”, I was happy working the rank at Waterloo station but on Wednesday I, and thousands of fellow black taxi drivers, will be striking on the streets of London.
You have to work hard to get your cabbies’ green badge, as hard as any university student. For three years you do the world-famous “knowledge of London”, but our honourable vocation is under threat from unfair competition.
Don’t misunderstand me. For as long as there have been black cabs there’s been competition. All taxi drivers are self-employed – in direct competition with one another. There have been minicabs since the 1960s and in recent years, bigger operators have come into the market. Then along came Uber, with its libertarian friends in Downing Street cheering it on.
Uber simply does not respect the people in Britain. Before it had even begun to operate in this country, Uber had designed its company structure so that UK profits are diverted through the Netherlands. All perfectly legal, but it means this$50bn company paid £22,134 in corporation tax from a profit of £866,000 in the UK in the last financial year.
Yet any criticism of Uber’s business model is treated as an attack on the new digital economy. This could not be further from the truth, as far as I’m concerned. There are huge numbers of digital companies doing great things for the economy. I use a few of them in my cab. Uber’s profitability, however, seems to be based on replacing decent work that provides stable employment for a council estate boy from Bermondsey like me with highly insecure jobs that pay poverty wages. This is not the kind of “innovation” that will help us create a sustainable economy for future generations.
It is clear the Tory party is on an ideological crusade against my industry. Its interference in London’s recent private hire review shows just how far the government will go to deregulate the UK hackney carriage trade. The United Cabbies Group has been campaigning to put a stop to the taxi deregulation agenda and to bring an end to the lowering of transport safety standards.
Driving a taxi gave me freedom too – I have been probably the first person from my family to truly experience it. Uber says it’s at the forefront of innovation, but the truth is that Uber is no better than the old-fashioned gangmaster down the docks – a return to the bad old days of providing insecure work that pays too little and which takes away the very opportunity from working-class children that I was lucky enough to have: the chance to be your own person, to be your own boss, without having to rely on a handout.
Taxi drivers have no choice but to follow the example of our counterparts in France last month and mount a campaign of civil disobedience to protest at the corporate capture of our democracy.
So when we strike, we’ll be calling on the government to create a level playing field by making sure that companies such as Uber pay their full share of UK tax.
When we strike, it’s to say that there should be one law for rich and poor alike.
And when we strike, it’s because a dreadful injustice is being perpetrated by the puppet masters of Britain’s rigged economy – against honest, hardworking people like me. Those same “hardworking people”, I seem to remember, that not so long ago the Tories swore to protect.
Source: Guardian