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Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

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Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#21

Post by Jimmed »

dijit wrote: post #12
peteretep wrote: post #2

Dang. Good thing London has Addison Lee. Edit: who are a long-running minicab service who give fixed price bids, have a reasonable app, have their own fleet by dedicated drivers, and are usually price competitive with Uber.

One thing to note is that Addison Lee minicabs are notorious for their dangerous driving and ability to get away with injuring people. Especially cyclists. This measure of protection is not afforded to uber drivers, nor are they encouraged to drive illegally by their company. http://road.cc/content/news/56878-tfl-warns-it-will-take-act...

I'd hate to fall foul of confirmation bias here, but as someone who regularly drives in London, some of the worst driving I've witnessed has been by Addison Lee cabs.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#22

Post by ceeK »

peteretep wrote: post #2

Dang. Good thing London has Addison Lee. Edit: who are a long-running minicab service who give fixed price bids, have a reasonable app, have their own fleet by dedicated drivers, and are usually price competitive with Uber.

I ordered an Addison Lee to the airport a few months back. The driver spent the entire time chatting about Uber and how dangerous it is. It's like they get off on it. He was also being quite racist about their drivers. This was at 3am in the morning.

This is just one data point, but I wasn't impressed.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#23

Post by Jimmed »

pjc50 wrote: post #20
boothead wrote: post #10

Well, I can't disagree with the reasons, but as someone who lives outside the M25 this means I lose a really handy way to get home when I've had a drink. Ah well, I'm supposed to have given up anyway :-)

How much does that really cost though? Is that from central London?

You're looking at roughly twice the cost, usually more if it's late on a Friday/Saturday night. I used to regularly travel from Zone 1 to just inside the M25 to the West of London ─ an Uber costs ~£40, whereas I've paid between £80 and £120 for other private hires for similar journeys.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#24

Post by barrkel »

dijit wrote: post #12
peteretep wrote: post #2

Dang. Good thing London has Addison Lee. Edit: who are a long-running minicab service who give fixed price bids, have a reasonable app, have their own fleet by dedicated drivers, and are usually price competitive with Uber.

One thing to note is that Addison Lee minicabs are notorious for their dangerous driving and ability to get away with injuring people. Especially cyclists. This measure of protection is not afforded to uber drivers, nor are they encouraged to drive illegally by their company. http://road.cc/content/news/56878-tfl-warns-it-will-take-act...

IMO Royal Mail are the worst drivers, far worse than any cabs.

I sometimes see them racing one another in large lorries, especially around Mount Pleasant. The fact that they have such large vehicles, while also driving unfamiliar routes (i.e. turning down roads that most traffic doesn't) makes them worse.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#25

Post by k-mcgrady »

Robadob wrote: post #9
kennydude wrote: post #6

Can't over-rule the law everywhere Uber. (Public transport in London is incredibly good most of the time anyway...)

Expensive relative to other European capitals though (the unions control over TFL in part to blame for that though).

It's cheaper than Uber though.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#26

Post by muse900 »

kennydude wrote: post #6

Can't over-rule the law everywhere Uber. (Public transport in London is incredibly good most of the time anyway...)

Public transport in London is ok, not good not bad. Depending...

Buses in London are awful imho, unless you want to go 2 stops. If you want to go more than that then you have to put up with nausea and how slow they are in general getting from A to B.

Underground, its ok for most parts unless its summer... No aircon is a big issue.

Trains... well thats where it gets annoying. I am very biased as I use Southern (the worst train company if you dont know them) which they are totally unreliable.

Thats where uber comes on. As I live in South East london, its either I get an uber on a night out which will take me home with a fair price, or get on a bus spending an average 40 mins more than uber etc. (Not a good experience)

All and all I think TFL's decision sucks, cause its biased on the blackmailing by black cabs. If black cabs want more work etc, they should go out and ask so their faires are lower so people prefer them... Uber takes me £12 to get home, and a black cab is £40 ... I mean seriously what you expect of me to pay the overpriced black cab? I literally don't care that they are buying cars from a specific company and those cars cost a lot etc and their licence takes years to get out etc I don't care. Go out and demonstrate against all that so you can change your job around and become competitive on your prices, don't expect to just drive everyone else out of business. Also I do know cabbies that are millionaires! I hope uber wins this case, I use uber etc, I don't like their policies about drivers and how they treat others etc but well at least it fits my purpose of going around.

./rant over

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#27

Post by peteretep »

ceeK wrote: post #22
peteretep wrote: post #2

Dang. Good thing London has Addison Lee. Edit: who are a long-running minicab service who give fixed price bids, have a reasonable app, have their own fleet by dedicated drivers, and are usually price competitive with Uber.

I ordered an Addison Lee to the airport a few months back. The driver spent the entire time chatting about Uber and how dangerous it is. It's like they get off on it. He was also being quite racist about their drivers. This was at 3am in the morning. This is just one data point, but I wasn't impressed.

No excuse for asshat drivers, but I've had an almost identical experience with Black Cab drivers too, and plenty of issues with Uber drivers around the world.
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