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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

#21

Post by michaelt »

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...

Those are the prices for becoming a black cab driver (allowed to respond to street hails and use taxi ranks) - to drive for Uber only requires a "private hire driver" license.

The private hire license avoids the need for "the knowledge" and to have the traditional London black cab. There are still fees involved, of course - but becoming an Uber driver is much less demanding than becoming a black cab driver.

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

#22

Post by djohnston »

_vrmm wrote: post #10

I know this opinion is not popular but I'm so happy everytime I see bad news for Uber and all these companies that only exist thanks to basically exploiting THEIR workers. Private transporting is not sustainable and it is not something that has to be affordable for everyone, even less by lowering workers wages or playing with the tariffs by demand. Taxi regulations gives us passengers safety and fair prices. There ar…

I can agree with you on worker treatment but I take issue with "So many years of labour rights fights being attacked by these startups that do not invent anything but base their business model on lower wages."

The only reason ANY of the taxi companies have improved service with new apps and lower prices is because of the competition introduced by ride sharing companies.

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

#23

Post by Traster »

It's pretty amazing how consistently Uber fails to abide by even the most basic regulations. How many times does a billion dollar company get a second chance? Every time this happens people talk about how the Mayor will get in trouble for this, but let's face it, ride hailing apps are 10 a penny. Lyft, Taxify, MyTaxi? No one in London is going to miss Uber.

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

#24

Post by [deleted] »

_vrmm wrote: post #10

I know this opinion is not popular but I'm so happy everytime I see bad news for Uber and all these companies that only exist thanks to basically exploiting THEIR workers. Private transporting is not sustainable and it is not something that has to be affordable for everyone, even less by lowering workers wages or playing with the tariffs by demand. Taxi regulations gives us passengers safety and fair prices. There ar…

[deleted]

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

#25

Post by PJDK »

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…

How do you stop one person signing up, doing the whole verification process correctly and then someone else using the app/driving the car? The only safeguard that springs to mind is providing a photo of the driver to the user, but that's already implemented.

You could also do spot checks (no idea if they do or not), but that's not going to eliminate the problem just reduce it.

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

#26

Post by ptah »

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…

if you can't design for that, then your business is failing a fundamental requirement

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

#27

Post by pjc50 »

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…

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

This is the Internet. If you don't design for people cheating you, they will wreck your system as soon as it becomes popular enough to be visible.

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

#28

Post by _vrmm »

djohnston wrote: post #22
_vrmm wrote: post #10

I know this opinion is not popular but I'm so happy everytime I see bad news for Uber and all these companies that only exist thanks to basically exploiting THEIR workers. Private transporting is not sustainable and it is not something that has to be affordable for everyone, even less by lowering workers wages or playing with the tariffs by demand. Taxi regulations gives us passengers safety and fair prices. There ar…

I can agree with you on worker treatment but I take issue with "So many years of labour rights fights being attacked by these startups that do not invent anything but base their business model on lower wages." The only reason ANY of the taxi companies have improved service with new apps and lower prices is because of the competition introduced by ride sharing companies.

Not having an app on your smartphone does not outweight the bad sides to me. In Spain tho, mytaxi came before Uber.

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

#29

Post by daneyh »

_vrmm wrote: post #10

I know this opinion is not popular but I'm so happy everytime I see bad news for Uber and all these companies that only exist thanks to basically exploiting THEIR workers. Private transporting is not sustainable and it is not something that has to be affordable for everyone, even less by lowering workers wages or playing with the tariffs by demand. Taxi regulations gives us passengers safety and fair prices. There ar…

Typically i'd agree with your sentiment. Unfortunately I remember what getting around was like pre-Uber and that unregulated minicab companies are no better for workers exploitation or working rights and passenger safety...where is TfL(Transport for Londons) action on those firms? or the many uber clones that have popped up recently (Bolt, Kapten et al.) Uber is really an easy target for them. The alternative is the black cabs who are apparently the safer/regulated option however the number of times in my early 20s catching black cabs and not seeing any driver registration and having their card machines constantly not working and paying sky high prices in order to pay for their obsolescent knowledge test and fume producing diesel chugging machine makes me really sad at the thought of returning to this. Hopefully uber can clean up their act and get something sorted as seems to me the consumer is the loser in all of this.

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

#30

Post by xorcist »

_vrmm wrote: post #10

I know this opinion is not popular but I'm so happy everytime I see bad news for Uber and all these companies that only exist thanks to basically exploiting THEIR workers. Private transporting is not sustainable and it is not something that has to be affordable for everyone, even less by lowering workers wages or playing with the tariffs by demand. Taxi regulations gives us passengers safety and fair prices. There ar…

> you can see your trip, its aproximate cost, the driver's rating

Here's the thing: I don't want to rate my driver. I want to be able to rely on a third party that all available drivers are punctual and competent. It is not a choice I want to make.

Too much responsibility is already dumped on consumers under the guise of choice. Quality control of services I utilize is something I expect to pay for.

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