Uber Driver Who Assaulted Taxi Driver, One Year suspended sentence, Fined £880, Ordered To Do 150 Unpaid Hours….Report from Marc Turner.

Uber Driver Who Assaulted Taxi Driver, One Year suspended sentence, Fined £880, Ordered To Do 150 Unpaid Hours….Report from Marc Turner.

by | Aug 27, 2016 | London News

Yesterday (August 25th) at Highbury Magistrates Court, Uber driver Mohammed Dalim was found guilty by District Judge Nicholas Rimmer of One count of assault by beating.

Dalim was fined £680 Court costs and £200 compensation to Jon Cox, the Taxi driver Dalim punched in the back of the head at Kings Cross on 23rd March, this year. Dalim was given a one year suspended sentence and also ordered to serve 150 unpaid hours of work by 27 August 2017.
The hearing lasted approx two hours.
Judge Rimmer deliberated for approx thirty minutes.
It was an intriguing case. At one point the Judge asked the temperature be lowered when Jon Cox locked horns with defending lawyer Joseph Lawrence.
Star of the  proceedings was witness for the prosecution cabbie Lee Barron. Lee not only witnessed the accident, but intervened by braking up the fracas.
Lee’s performance was spellbinding.
He made the defence lawyer look like an amatuer. Even the Judge looked impressed, and in his summing up spoke of how credible the prosecution witness was.
Another nail in Dalim’s coffin was a statement read out by the arresting officer PC Francis, who described the altercation as “one taxi driver punched another” (which just goes to show, even the police can’t distinguish between Taxi & PH).
 Interestingly in Dalim’s statement to Police on being read his car registration, he replied “I ‘think’ that’s correct”.
 Finally Mohammed Dalim, took to the stand. Previously a bus driver of twelve years, he explained he’d been with Uber for just over a year. But, in giving his side of events, he seemed to suffer persistent ‘amnesia’.
Prosecuting lawyer Lorna Ewen made short shrift of him.
Judge Rimmer described his testimony as ‘vague’.
Dalim’s evidence appeared to revolve around a conspiracy theory, explaining “Everybody knows there’s a war between Black Cabs & Uber, and I am a victim of this”.
His delusion went as far as believing that Mr Barron and Mr Cox had coluded to set him up.
No doubt he thought the police were in on it as well!!

John Cox, Marc Turner and Sean Paul Day, outside the court

On a lighter note, the Clerk of the Court approached the press section of the gallery and exclaimed “I’ve never seen so many members of the press, why so much interest in my court”?…Included were Steve (LTDA), Gregg (The Sun), Marc Turner (Call Sign) and the irrepressible Sean Paul Day from London Taxi Radio.
Marc Turner replied “This case has great significance and interest in the Taxi and Private Hire trades.
The lady clerk questioned “Why”?.. Marc explained in hushed tones “Because the defendant’s an ‘Uber’ driver”. She came back with “Who’s Uber”?…..To which Marc Turner declared his undying ‘love’ for her!!!! To laughs all round.
US Judge Rejects Uber’s Settlement Attempt With Drivers

US Judge Rejects Uber’s Settlement Attempt With Drivers

by | Aug 20, 2016 | World News

A US judge has rejected an attempt by taxi-hailing app Uber to settle a class action lawsuit with drivers over expenses.

Drivers working for the company claim Uber should treat them as employees instead of contractors and that they should be able to claim for expenses, including petrol.

Uber drivers currently have to finance fuel and car maintenance themselves.

The proposed $100m (£76m) settlement would have been shared among 380,000 drivers, but Judge Edward Chen ruled the deal “not fair or adequate”.

Uber said they believed the pre-settlement funding advantages discussed before was fair and reasonable in a statement.

The company said: “We’re disappointed in this decision and are taking a look at our options.”

If Uber has to give drivers more rights and benefits, the company will incur huge costs and may be forced to change its business model which would cause its expenses to rise significantly.

This week, it launched legal action against Transport for London over new rules for private hire companies which are designed to improve passenger safety.

Uber launches self-driving taxis, with people unknowingly getting picked up by autonomous vehicles

Uber launches self-driving taxis, with people unknowingly getting picked up by autonomous vehicles

by | Aug 18, 2016 | London News

Uber customers will soon get picked up by autonomous cars instead of those being driven by humans.

The company is rolling out a scheme in Pittsburgh that will see people call Ubers as normal – only to have a specially-designed, self-driving Volvo come to pick them up.

There will initially be someone sat in the front seat of the car, making sure that it is safe as well as allowing it to satisfy regulations that at the moment prohibit cars driving themselves around. And it will initially be tested in a specific area – though it’s widely-expected to roll out elsewhere in the future

At the moment, Uber has more than a million drivers ferrying people around cities. While it’s not said explicitly that it wants to replace them with robots, that appears to be its plan – and it has been working towards make it happen over the last year or two.

In the very near future, nobody will own cars

Now it has said that about 100 Volvo XC90s will be driving around Pittsburgh, picking people up.

Those customers will call their Uber as normal. When it arrives, they’ll get in and find that their journey is free, as part of their recompense for testing out the new robot taxis.

Previously, it was thought that Uber might work to build its own cars, similar to what Google – and supposedly Apple – is doing. But the cars are custom versions of the Volvo XC90, fitted out with technology to let them drive themselves and a person helping it out in the front seat.

As well as acting as a safety measure, the engineer that will be staffing the car will also be able to observe and take notes about how the cars are used. And the cars will have a computer in it, taking measurements and recording data as the cars move along.

Editors Comments

Uber are using Volvo XC90’s for these Autonomous Vehicles! Who owns Volvo, yes you’ve guessed it, Geely own Volvo cars, the same Geely who own the London Taxi Company, the same Geely who want to sell you the TX4 or TX5 next year!

You couldn’t make it up!

MAYFAIR MOB (MM) RANKS UPDATE : Taking Our Work Back

MAYFAIR MOB (MM) RANKS UPDATE : Taking Our Work Back

by | Aug 18, 2016 | London News

Firstly the MM would like to thank TFL Ranks & Highways for their hard work and support over the last 18 months.

BEDUIN
Islington Council are raising an experimental traffic order after agreeing to rank time changes. The new rank plate should be in place soon. The MM would like to thank Smithfield Tennants’ Association for their help in getting the consultation over the line.
SUSHI SAMBA
TFL are currently trialling a rank here on Friday and Saturday nights supported by trade marshals. Although this needs a permanent rank for every night, this is a step in the right direction. The MM have submitted plans to TFL for a permanent rank and also have other options if this plan is rejected.
SKY GARDEN
Plans have been submitted to TFL to move 2 rank spaces from the top of Philpot Lane to outside Sky Garden at the bottom.
KANALOA
Plans have been submitted to TFL for a 2 space taxi rank outside this venue.
SEXY FISH
Plans have been submitted to TFL for a rank on Berkeley Square just up from the entrance. The MM understands that the LCRC have also requested a rank here in Bruton Lane. We feel that our plan would serve this venue better and produce more work but will support any rank gained at this venue by the trade.
SIX STOREYS
We have submitted rank plans to TFL for a rank at this venue. The venue is due to open this Autumn in Soho Square. We have also entered into dialogue with the owners of this venue.
HEAVEN
Plans have been submitted to TFL for a 3 space rank in Villiers Street.
ARTS CLUB
DOVER ST
We have requested a two space rank outside the Arts Club.
This will provide the club with a service as the new Novikov extension is expected to require existing rank space.
We are in contact with various councils pushing for the appointment of new ranks, and the upkeep of existing ranks
We are also working on other projects which will benefit the trade immensely once completed. We will update the trade when we are able to.
We are working with the UCG and RMT on various ranks and highways projects and hope to achieve more positive results for the trade through this collaboration.
We would like to thank all drivers that are currently working the ranks. TFL’s biggest hurdle is taxis parked on working ranks as councils will reject rank requests whilst this is happening. Please use common sense if you need to leave a cab on a working rank in case of emergencies by not leaving it on point.
Please follow @givethem10 for the latest ranks info and please
GIVE EM 10. USE EM OR LOSE EM 
Be lucky drivers
City AM’s Uber Love-In BUSTED

City AM’s Uber Love-In BUSTED

by | Aug 17, 2016 | London News

By Zelo Street

The behaviour of those running rider and driver matching service Uber has passed before my inspection previously: the aggressive posturing of the California based company, bankrolled by Goldman Sachs and Google, and led by Travis Kalanick, the 21st Century reincarnation of Cornelius Vanderbilt, has become infamous, especially its efforts to simultaneously screw over both London’s black cabs, and its own drivers.
Meanwhile, the inability of the right-leaning press to see Uber for what it really is – an attempt to gain monopoly market power which treats its own drivers as slaves, mere prisoners of the app – has continued apace, with unquestioning churnalism taking Uber’s claim that this is merely a manifestation of so-called “disruptive technology”, and that anyone opposing it is stuck in the past, resistant to change.
So it has been with freesheet City AM, now edited by Uber cheerleader extraordinaire Christian May, and especially when London’s new Mayor Sadiq Khan, who looks like he is actually going to treat the job seriously – unlike his predecessor – decided to bring in new regulations covering taxis and minicabs. Uber is not happy at having to accede to any regulations, and so is doubly unhappy about Khan’s actions.
The task of selling Uber’s excuses for not acceding to the same regulations accepted by everyone else has, at City AM, been delegated to Lynsey Barber, who is the paper’s Technology Editor – remember, it’s all about technology, right? We should keep on Looking Over There. And Ms Barber obediently churns over Uber’s talking points.
“Uber is turning to its customers to help it fight ‘bureaucratic’ new rules imposed by Transport for London, including an English exam ‘harder than the test for British citizenship’ … The billion-dollar company said the rules would ‘threaten the livelihood of thousands of drivers’, reducing their numbers and thus increasing the waiting times for users”. Ah, how did London manage before Uber? Er, quite well enough, actually.
But there’s more: Uber “has also called out a requirement for part-time drivers to have costly full-time commercial insurance even when they’re not driving, as well as the need for Uber to tell TfL of any changes to its app, which it argues would slow down the roll out of new features”. Er, this is drivel. Obtaining the necessary insurance might not interest Uber, but it happens to be a requirement of their drivers doing business here. How they do that is their problem. And notifying changes to the app? Nothing more onerous than an email.
In other words, this is excuse-making writ large, and City AM should be doing better. Instead, Ms Barber has now brought readers“Business groups and entrepreneurs have piled the pressure on the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, warning that new rules clamping down on Uber will stifle innovation in the capital and its multi-billion pound digital economy as he attempts brand the city ‘open for business’”. It reads like an Uber PR release.
Instead of shilling for Uber, City AM – and all the others – might consider Uber’s enslavement of its drivers by enticing them to take on car loans and then cutting their pay, something that good libertarians might be though to be hot on. Or the claim made by Steve McNamara of the LTDA that Uber is bribing journalists to produce favourable copy.
Uber is not about technology. It is about bullying Governments into submission, flouting regulation to create business advantage, favouring the strong over the weak, and screwing over those least able to resist – the drivers who have been conned into coming on board, many of them having to exist on as little as £4 an hour, and the customers, who think they’re getting a bargain – until they, too, become captives of the app.
Why City AM is unable, or unwilling, to address any of these points I will leave for others to draw their own conclusions.