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Uber London loses licence to operate

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#361

Post by CPLX »

adventured wrote: post #187
nikanj wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Uber-sized companies squirrel the profits to tax havens in the Caribbean. Getting the profits to the reach of the US tax system would be unexpected.

So, you're arguing the majority of companies over, say, a $50 billion market valuation in the US are hiding all their profit in the Caribbean and none or very little of it is reaching the US tax system. Conveniently, a few minutes going through public financial statements disproves that outlandish, comical premise. 3M, McDonald's, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, AT&T, Delta, UPS, Disney, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Ho…

> "The average effective tax rate among S&P companies that had posted calendar fourth-quarter results as of Friday was 24.11 percent"

The question in a discussion of tax avoidance, of course, is 24.11% of what.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#362

Post by orf »

jamiegreen wrote: post #289
orf wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, it's a service charge that in most places is charged for groups over a certain size (4 or 5). There is no culture of compulsory tipping for anything, because it's ridiculous.

My experience does not match what you are saying. I was always taught that (unless a service charge is already included) you should tip 10-20% in good restaurants. Not to tip I believe is generally seen as rude/a sign that service was bad.

Sure, but you wouldn't leave a tip after getting a cup of tea at a wetherspoons, would you. I guess that's the UK equivalent of coffee at a diner.

Some places accept tips, and perhaps in some you should. The vast vast vast majority don't expect them as par for the course.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#363

Post by conanbatt »

Nursie wrote: post #280
alexasmyths wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"For now, sure, but you may have missed the word "monopoly"." The Taxi business in every city is a 'monopoly'. Shares in this 'rent seeking entity' are bought by owning 'medallions'. It's hypocritical that a cabal of local medallion owning rent-seekers want to attack Uber for their 'monopolistic' practices. The cab drivers who don't own medallions aren't getting much out of it. Uber is not a monopoly, nor has it been…

>> The Taxi business in every city is a 'monopoly'. Shares in this 'rent seeking entity' are bought by owning 'medallions'. This is just not true, and the medallion system doesn't seem to exist outside of the US. The rest of your post is just as much nonsense. There's a whole list of reasons Uber are having this happen, and none of it's political. Oh, and according to Uber, they aren't jobs - or else they'd have to c…

> This is just not true, and the medallion system doesn't seem to exist outside of the US.

We have licenses in argentina which are basically the same. While the taxi drivers that are unionized flipped out cars and threw stones at Uber offices down here, they claimed Uber wasnt safe.

At least 50% of taxis in argentina dont have working seatbelts.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#364

Post by Sean1708 »

mittermayr wrote: post #208
abbot2 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's England. You don't tip here.

Well, in restaurants now the tip's already on the bill, unless you want to make your entire group or date uncomfortable by "talking to the waiter about taking it off".

To be fair, I've only ever seen this in expensive restaurants.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#365

Post by Nursie »

kodablah wrote: post #355
Nursie wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out the rest of the thread, onion2k gave a few

I saw those links, and can Google others as well when searching for Uber wrongdoing. I want their details, not a commenters. I saw the Tfl's statement which only had four abstract bullet points. What did they ask about Greyball and what was answered? Which unreported crimes and were there cover-up attempts by the company? In general, one might expect a level of detailed transparency in these rulings lest it's seen as…

I presume it's available somewhere, if one looks hard enough. london.gov.uk has a lot of detailed info, including minutes of transport committee meetings, various FOI requests (including an Uber one from earlier in the year - https://www.london.gov.uk/foi-disclosure-log/foi-uber-meetin... )

If there isn't enough already published then you could consider submitting an FOI yourself.

--edit-- This may be interesting and has various links to rulings by the London Assembly, and other bits and pieces:

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/assembly/chair-of-t...

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#366

Post by princeb »

squigg wrote: post #358
erwan wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This decision has officially nothing to do with tax evasion/optimization. It is on grounds of consumer protection that Uber's licence is not being renewed. Anyone who has taken a black cab should immediately understand the hypocrisy motivating this decision. The user experience is absolutely horrendous and there's no good tracking system to make black cab drivers accountable. In short, as everyone knows, it is just a…

I'm sorry but you will have to do more to explain your point on black cab user experience being horrendous. Whilst it can be hard to get a hold of one at times, in my experience of 20 years of using them, the user experience is great - the drivers are typically friendly and get you there as quickly as they can. I have used Uber many times in London and abandoned it months ago, as the drivers don't have the local know…

uber is pretty much useless in zone 1 since the roads are too narrow and the traffic too extreme. you could literally take a leisurely walk from the british museum down to leicester square garden faster than a minicab. black cabs have the benefit of being allowed to travel on bus lanes and that makes all the difference in central London.

that said, black cabs get more and more unreliable the further away from central London you are.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#367

Post by conanbatt »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #189

Londoner here. The license is not being renewed not because TfL isn't interested in innovation (they actively encourage it), not to retain power for the black cab drivers, and not because London isn't interested in companies like Uber operating here. It's because of the rapes. The Metropolitan Police (the part of the UK police force that polices London), has objected to their license. In 2015 alone, they had to deal…

Im suspicious of your base data. Uber's are not anonymous, and although it might give a broader access to the service for criminals, its not less able to turn information over, if not more. Argentina has an issue with taxicabs picking girls out of night clubs and sexually assaulting them, but there is no record of which cab it was, so the criminals are never found. That would not happen with UBer (without finding the criminal, that is).

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#368

Post by k-mcgrady »

geocar wrote: post #348
k-mcgrady wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Your example of a bad trip is extreme. It's clearly awful but out of probably close to 100 trips I've had one where the driver took a bad route (he ignored GPS and got stuck in rush hour traffic in a tunnel). I contacted Uber who gave me a full immediate refund. >> there are cheap hotels all over London 2. I could get from Brixton to Mile End for £20 (£5 when split between passengers). Find me a hotel for that pri…

> I'm curious whether you were asleep or not during that trip? No. I was not asleep. > That's a massive detour in the wrong direction twice. You and the driver both have a map showing your current location and destination. It seems like an easy mistake to quickly notice and correct And yet somehow he missed the A312/M4, he missed the A40, took his time turning around passing two exits and then took the A40 in the wro…

I agree that's a terrible experience. But you could get a refund with 30 seconds effort in my experience (a lot easier than if this happened with a normal taxi as you have GPS to prove what happened). It also seems like an extreme outlier experience.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#369

Post by pbhjpbhj »

microcolonel wrote: post #281
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have customers who go to other places for our niche services (art/craft), I don't have a problem with that. We could seek to get those customers exclusively to use our services, I just don't find a compelling reason to do so (of course I'm greedy for money, but other than that?).

I mean no disrespect, but I think you are perhaps misunderstanding the concept of a monopoly.

The sibling comment by laumars puts the position well - perhaps you could explain where I'm erring? I consider a monopoly to be exclusive control of a market niche by one company (eg limited to a particular geographic area). Uber would have a monopoly if they drive out competing taxi services (or "private hire" in the UK, depending on the scope of the niche you want to focus on).

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#370

Post by seanmcdirmid »

nikanj wrote: post #116
Nursie wrote: post #40

If they can't or won't reform then excellent, let's be rid of them. I don't want to give any business to a company that are seeking to become a worldwide cab monopoly, and squirrel away any profits to the US. We have a perfectly healthy cab ecosystem in my city, app-driven and with fare competition and city regulation. Which I suppose is why Uber, though present, hasn't really taken off here. That said, talk of profi…

Most Uber-sized companies squirrel the profits to tax havens in the Caribbean. Getting the profits to the reach of the US tax system would be unexpected.

Uber is a very very very long way from making a profit.
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