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Uber London loses licence to operate

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#271

Post by leot »

wavefunction wrote: post #247
lotsofpulp wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, I don’t think I’ve ridden in a small, local cab company whose cars didn’t smell like cigarettes and was barely legal to drive, and often had drivers trying to scam you. It was always nice expensive black car service, or shitty local taxi company, which was a super last resort. The transparency and accountability that Uber brought has been preferred by everyone I know, and people are voting with their dolla…

I've never had that experience with local cabs. Now what?

Game theory makes it clear why anonymous cabs paid in cash will almost always provide worse service than a rating sensitive system.

The notion that people will be kind and nice because of social norms or "plain decency" or something is sentimental hogwash. People behave well when the system rewards them for doing so and penalises them for not.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#272

Post by jads »

sambe wrote: post #16

When I have reported black cab drivers misleading passengers, lying about pricing and regulations or bus drivers driving dangerously and being rude to everyone, TfL are totally uninterested. They give the impression that they know the scams operate and don't care. It's an interesting comparison with my Uber experience, which has been almost flawless and issues are usually fixed by Uber themselves promptly.

Having lived in London for several years, I have a special hatred of black cab drivers. I have never had a single good experience using a black cab, and very few of my friends do either. Complaints range from refusing to take a fare (which would've been four miles but crossed the river - cabby flatly said "I'm not going south of the river this late, I won't get any fares to come back") to deliberately taking long routes (I took a cab from Covent Garden to Islington once, when we were about to cross the river I told the cabby I'm a Londoner, not a tourist, and if you cross the river then I'm getting out).

I really dislike Uber, but there's no question I'd rather use them in London than a black cab. This is one of those decisions that are likely to be fully justified, but will still suck for those who have come to rely on them.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#273

Post by poooogles »

Nursie wrote: post #152
SamColes wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try that at 3am and see if the cab driver cares.

If they want any paying at all, presumably they will. They are required by TFL to have a working contactless and Chip'n'Pin device mounted in the customer compartment. I have a feeling we're talking about things that happened in the past.

What's required and reality are sometimes very different. I know I've been told the card machine doesn't work, then magically after saying I have no cash it'll start working a minute later...

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#274

Post by kbart »

trentnix wrote: post #260
kbart wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why many people prefer small, local cab companies that pay license fees and taxes to a local budget.

They do? You sure about that? Then why not just let them compete?

"They do? You sure about that?"

Yes, I pay with credit card 9/10 times and get a receipt. I doubt any of these companies are big enough to have offshore companies to route their income through.

"Then why not just let them compete?"

They do. There's quite big competition in my city among public transport (city owned), many local taxi companies, private taxi drivers and Uber. Competition is quite fierce and costumers can choose freely whatever they prefer. I prefer taxi, I call taxi, some of my friends prefer Uber - they call Uber. What other competition do you have in mind?

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#275

Post by kaishiro »

danpalmer wrote: post #227
sambe wrote: post #16

When I have reported black cab drivers misleading passengers, lying about pricing and regulations or bus drivers driving dangerously and being rude to everyone, TfL are totally uninterested. They give the impression that they know the scams operate and don't care. It's an interesting comparison with my Uber experience, which has been almost flawless and issues are usually fixed by Uber themselves promptly.

I used an Uber for a 45 minute journey recently. The seatbelt didn't work. In the UK it's illegal to not wear a seatbelt, and it's against Uber's terms of service for me not to wear a seatbelt, and against their terms of service for the driver not to provide one. Uber didn't care, told me they would "talk to the driver". I'd have expected at least an acknowledgement that they endangered my safety, but no, no acknowle…

Endangered your safety? Did someone force you into the vehicle?

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#276

Post by Nursie »

shamas wrote: post #255
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…

"healthy cab ecosystem"? Have you lived in outer London? If you're out as far as one of the houses outside Brixton, the cab system isn't even in existence, let alone healthy.

That comment was about the city I live in now, Southampton, where we have multiple cab firms with reasonable prices and reasonable apps.

That said I used to live in Streatham in the mid 00s, and sure, the transport situation wasn't great. There was choice back then, but between terrible or worse.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#277

Post by FeepingCreature »

mrow84 wrote: post #245
dandare wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, the article would greatly benefit from more factual information. What "threat to Londoners' safety and security"? Be specific please.

That is factually a quote from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as reported in the article. It is not the journalist's job to provide specifics on the behalf of others.

Investigative journalism? Sort of is their job.

You're not just supposed to blindly reprint things people say.

Admittedly everyone does it anyways, but still.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#278

Post by shamas »

Uber's response to the assault claims. https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/vv598m/uber-drivers-a...

I suspect that this is actually behind doors shenanigans by the hands of incumbents.

Uber is big... They have many more rides than anyone else (outside of Central Central London), and there doesn't appear to be any evidence that more crime proportionally is happening with them than any other company.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#279

Post by notyourday »

dx034 wrote: post #205
cjsuk wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The option (2) happened to me many times in a row. One of the intermediate touch stations that you're supposed to whack at Highbury and Islington when you transition from tube to rail wasn't reporting or not working. This meant I got mugged every day for a week. Getting the cash out of them proved very difficult. Sure there are arcane and complex rules but the nature of those demands that the liability is on them.

You didn't get mugged. Please don't downplay muggings. Getting mugged is much worse than paying too much because of a software error. Tfl always reimburses and they pay out to any bank account, you just have to call them for the details. I can understand that it's annoying but that wasn't mugging. Did you report the faulty purple reader? Those are used by several thousand people per day, I've never seen card readers…

Wait. What? In 2017? There are instructions and I have to report broken equipment? I have to figure out instructions on payment system?! There's no button to handle it all on my phone?

Cabs should either operate as well as Uber or die. Instead of figuring out how to become as good or better than Uber they are trying to push Uber out. That just means someone else would show up.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#280

Post by Nursie »

alexasmyths wrote: post #264
KyeRussell wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For now, sure, but you may have missed the word "monopoly". Fact is, Uber is running an unsustainable business in a lot of markets to gain market share. It's anticompetitive business practice. Free market fanboys will argue that the issue will fix itself after Uber raises prices - thus allowing more healthy competition, but this takes time. Not everyone can drive or rely on public transportation. In modern society, t…

"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 comply with employment law, something else they'd rather avoid.

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