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Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

bbc.com

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Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#11

Post by onion2k »

caithrin wrote: post #3

"Only in the last few months it has been established that 14,000 Uber journeys have involved fraudulent drivers uploading their photos to other driver accounts - with passengers' safety potentially put at risk getting into cars with unlicensed and suspended drivers." This seems, from a technical perspective, an easy problem to solve with the resources of a public company. Is it the desperation of people who need the…

This seems, from a technical perspective, an easy problem to solve with the resources of a public company.

Is it the desperation of people who need the money so badly they will constantly cheat the system? Can you design for that?

I don't think the motivation on the part of the drivers who do this is very important. They're intentionally deceiving Uber customers, and in some cases endangering them. That just has to stop, even if the driver is desperate. The point here is that it's Uber's responsibility to stop it happening, and Uber has apparently chosen not to (like you, it's not that hard). That will be very hard to justify, especially as Uber were running TV ads about how they do background checks on all their drivers here in the UK recently.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#12

Post by bengillies »

ReptileMan wrote: post #9
xwolfi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what we could do, let's think...maybe...a taxi medalion with a public exam ? :D They tried to solve the problem from the wrong angle, and it turns out that the high cost of taxis, while suboptimal for sure, might not be entirely for no reason.

Only if the exam is cheap (not easy) and number of medallions is unlimited. (I got your joke, don't worry)

The prices are listed on this page[1]. Looks pretty expensive to me.

[1] https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing...

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#13

Post by JazCE »

caithrin wrote: post #3

"Only in the last few months it has been established that 14,000 Uber journeys have involved fraudulent drivers uploading their photos to other driver accounts - with passengers' safety potentially put at risk getting into cars with unlicensed and suspended drivers." This seems, from a technical perspective, an easy problem to solve with the resources of a public company. Is it the desperation of people who need the…

Surely a decent solution would be for the uber driver having to use their fingerprint to initialise the app before every journey (as long as they're not using a galaxy s10)

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#14

Post by sacheendra »

bengillies wrote: post #12
ReptileMan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if the exam is cheap (not easy) and number of medallions is unlimited. (I got your joke, don't worry)

The prices are listed on this page[1]. Looks pretty expensive to me. [1] https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing...

< 1000 pounds for what is basically license for a livelihood seems cheap.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#15

Post by lamps12 »

samwillis wrote: post #5

The article doesn't really explain... their current temporary license (they have been on a temp one since last year) expires at 11.59 tonight, TFL won't give them a new permanent one. This will be in the courts today and they will probably be granted another temporary one before the day is out.

What's the maximum time period one can operate with the temp?

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#16

Post by dwardu »

grenoire wrote: post #8
dwardu wrote: post #4

Sign up to Bolt. It has just moved into London a few months ago. https://invite.bolt.eu/HPEEW

Are you literally shilling your referral link here..?

Helping others find an alternative to uber in these dark times

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#17

Post by Symbiote »

bengillies wrote: post #12
ReptileMan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if the exam is cheap (not easy) and number of medallions is unlimited. (I got your joke, don't worry)

The prices are listed on this page[1]. Looks pretty expensive to me. [1] https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing...

That is for the "black cab" taxis, the ones you can hail by waving on the street.

For a private hire vehicle (the kind you telephone or use an app to book), the price is under £700 (under £500 if the driver speaks English).

That doesn't seem unreasonable. The GP comment was referring to the American system where the license are traded at very high costs (tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars).

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing...

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#20

Post by pgl »

samwillis wrote: post #5

The article doesn't really explain... their current temporary license (they have been on a temp one since last year) expires at 11.59 tonight, TFL won't give them a new permanent one. This will be in the courts today and they will probably be granted another temporary one before the day is out.

From the TfL press release:

> Legislation means that Uber now has 21 days to appeal, during which it can continue to operate pending any appeal and throughout any potential appeals process. Uber may seek to implement changes to demonstrate to a magistrate that it is fit and proper by the time of the appeal.

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