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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

#31
post #23
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

4 miles in a black cab summoned via Hailo can cost you £25 on a Saturday afternoon as a price comparison. It takes 15 minutes for them to turn up and the journey takes up to 30 mins or so depending on traffic.

I can actually walk that in under an hour if I need to.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#32
post #28

What happens if they just carry on operating?

Uber will not be banned; it will just start paying attention to a number of things that it should already be paying attention to. It is not as if its business model has been ruled fundamentally illegal.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#33
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there much value in "the knowledge" anymore, given the existence of GPS, phones, and map apps with real time traffic and accident information?

tl;dr No. Google Maps is as-good as the knowledge or better. Hailo allegedly did a piece of research to try and prove that black cabs were better than a private hire vehicle using Google Maps as Hailo had both at the time and had the data to compare. The point of this was to enable a marketing campaign to sell Hailo for hailing black cabs because bus lane access and the knowledge meant that black cabs would be faster…

That might be true for a taxi use case where few trips are the same but for regular routes knowledge still wins because you only need to have the software tell you to go a dumb way once to know that's not the best way to that place.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#34
post #20

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?

I used to live outside the M25 and a black cab was £110 from central London (around 30 miles). Uber was around £50-£60, so much cheaper by comparison.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#35
post #26

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 wo…

Asking people to be competitive on prices with a company whose business model is to lose money by undercutting until all the competition is gone ... well, seems like that won’t end well for London

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#37
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wo…

Asking people to be competitive on prices with a company whose business model is to lose money by undercutting until all the competition is gone ... well, seems like that won’t end well for London

Don't forget that Uber takes a 20% cut. Black cabs don't have to rely on that at all.

Its up to the government to make the process of getting a licences cab less expensive, and open cabs on having whatever car with X amount of years limited... the monopoly of the company that makes those black cabs and sells them for 150k is absurd.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#38
post #16

More from the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/22/uber-lice... They have 21 days to appeal and can keep operating until the appeal process itself finishes (Oct 13th then). > [TFL said] Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility

> They have 21 days to appeal and can keep operating until the appeal process itself finishes (Oct 13th then). The 21 days is how long (from now) they have to begin the appeal:- "The Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 includes provision to appeal a licensing decision within 21 days of it being communicated to the applicant. Uber London Limited can continue to operate until any appeal processes have been exhauste…

On NPR this morning they mentioned the appeal may take up to 18 months. No idea how accurate that is however.

Re: Uber to Lose Private Hire Licence in London

#39

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.

Addison Lee are some of the craziest drivers in London.
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