Uber London loses licence to operate • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#341

Post by laumars » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:06 PM UTC

microcolonel wrote: post #281

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have customers who go to other places for our niche services (art/craft), I don't have a problem with that. We could seek to get those customers exclusively to use our services, I just don't find a compelling reason to do so (of course I'm greedy for money, but other than that?).

I mean no disrespect, but I think you are perhaps misunderstanding the concept of a monopoly.

Could you expand on that point please because my understanding of the term monopoly, "the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service." would align with the point the other commenter is raising.

Some independent stores simply aren't interested in being the monopoly in their local area for their particular product. Sometimes they just run the business because its a product they enjoy and running their own business is preferable to being an employee for someone else.

Another example of businesses not run like monopolies is with consumables like fast food. You might have a successful fish and chip shop, Chinese or Indian take-away. Most UK towns will have multiple different independent restaurants but you seldom see these restaurants open up more shops in town, or even in other towns. Yet there is clearly a demand for good take-aways.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#342

Post by Spearchucker » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:06 PM UTC

mino wrote: post #145

jmkni wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where prepaid mastercards which sync up to an app on your phone come in really handy. You get a push notification instantly as soon as a contactless transaction goes through so you know right away if you've been ripped off.

True, but that does not work for TfL because of how they charge you. Details: http://news.revolut.com/post/146212645837/touch-it-tap-it-re... I've been charged a wrong amount by TfL a few times in the past, I contacted them (either on the phone or via the webform) and I was always reimbursed. There are basically two situations where you get charged a wrong amount: 1. common: the "touch out" did not work. Just log in…

I designed the original tariffing engine for Oyster back in 2003/4. Compared to similar work I did for cellphone operators this was interesting in that Oyster actively seek to charge the lowest amount possible. The engine is pretty simple in that it does a shortest-path (£-based) determination between start and end stations. The trick was dealing with trips where a weekly or monthly travel card covers part of the route, and pay-as-you-go the rest. There are other edge cases that cannot be handled at all - having a travel card for, say, a trip through zones 1 and 2, and a pre-purchased ticket for zones 3 and 4 for a trip from zone 2 to 4.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#343

Post by vertex-four » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

jamiegreen wrote: post #329

vertex-four wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, most of us don't regularly eat in "good restaurants" - pretty much anything on the high street/your local shopping centre isn't, and anywhere you can get a meal for under £15 a head before drinks doesn't count as a "good restaurant", in my books.

I mean where you draw the line is up to you, but if there are three of you x £15, plus drinks lets say total of £64 , I would normally round it up to 70. By good restaurants I meant anything that isn't fast food (Subway, McDs). But perhaps I am not a typical customer, I don't know.

Often I go out to a restaurant with a friend and order fairly common food - totalling On the other hand, if I were to go with a reasonably sized group of people, had to get a table big enough for the lot of us, have people with dietary requirements or order cocktails or who otherwise make many demands of the staff... it's worth tipping as we're a pain in the ass, basically. And many restaurants automatically add a service charge in that case anyway.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#344

Post by nicolapede » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

throwaway287391 wrote: post #282

overcast wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had a terrible experience my first trip to London with black cabs. Headed to Heathrow express, late for flight as it is, He tells me 3/4 of the trip through, no cabs accept credit. We pull up to a stop light, and a cab directly to our left, has "we accept credit" on the window. So now I'm sitting here driving around with the cab guy to find an ATM at 5am just to pay him.

I've learned to always, ALWAYS ask when I first step into a cab whether they accept card payments, anywhere in the world. As far as I can remember, every time I've done this the answer has always been "yes" and the card payment worked without a hitch at the end of the ride. Yet just about every time I took a cab without asking about cards upfront, the driver would tell me his reader isn't working and he'd have to dri…

Counterexample -- happened near London. I asked to the cab driver if he accepted card payments and he says no. I asked him if we could stop to an ATM machine on the way and he said no and had me leave the cab (it was raining and there was a huge queue to get a cab).

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#345

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

PaulRobinson wrote: post #189

Londoner here. The license is not being renewed not because TfL isn't interested in innovation (they actively encourage it), not to retain power for the black cab drivers, and not because London isn't interested in companies like Uber operating here. It's because of the rapes. The Metropolitan Police (the part of the UK police force that polices London), has objected to their license. In 2015 alone, they had to deal…

[deleted]

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#346

Post by robin_reala » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

alexasmyths wrote: post #306

Nursie wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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 c…

" they aren't jobs" Just 'let them eat cake' then? This is really quite insulting to the 20 000 - 40 000 people who are about to lose their source of income - most of them at the lower end of the economic scale - and the millions of users of Uber for whom Black cabs are just too expensive, because medallions or not - the system is de-facto a controlled economy. I highly doubt that a fairly operationally competent ent…

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/18/uber-and-volvo-put-300m-in...

“Uber and Volvo put $300M into building self-driving cars” doesn’t imply that Uber really care about their drivers either.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#347

Post by vixen99 » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #105

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.

Failure to report serious crimes and allowing the driver to continue driving for Uber: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/13/uber-fail... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uber-drivers-accused-of... Failure to properly check medical certifications: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1897962/investigation-reveals-... Failure to follow up DBS (criminal records) checks (can't find an article about that one).…

Uber drivers were accused of 32 sexual assaults on passengers in 2015/16. In 2015, 126 London taxi drivers were charged with violent or sexual offences — or 521 over the past five years.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#348

Post by geocar » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #109

geocar wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> none of these are as convenient or cost effective as Uber. I disagree, and let me tell you why: https://i.imgur.com/JITqdiP.png I have blocked out the location of my home and the identity of my "driver", but this guy shouldn't be driving, let alone driving a passenger. I'm never riding Uber again. > I can see the night tube getting a lot more use but I know quite a few people who don't like to take it after having…

1. Your example of a bad trip is extreme. It's clearly awful but out of probably close to 100 trips I've had one where the driver took a bad route (he ignored GPS and got stuck in rush hour traffic in a tunnel). I contacted Uber who gave me a full immediate refund. >> there are cheap hotels all over London 2. I could get from Brixton to Mile End for £20 (£5 when split between passengers). Find me a hotel for that pri…

> I'm curious whether you were asleep or not during that trip?

No. I was not asleep.

> That's a massive detour in the wrong direction twice. You and the driver both have a map showing your current location and destination. It seems like an easy mistake to quickly notice and correct

And yet somehow he missed the A312/M4, he missed the A40, took his time turning around passing two exits and then took the A40 in the wrong (west) direction. Unbelievable in the evening with no traffic. Should have cost £20ish pounds.

I had to point out each of these, and I couldn't understand his english. He might have been too tired to drive, or he might have been incompetent. I don't really care, but I'm not getting in an Uber again.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#349

Post by jen20 » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:10 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #319

chillydawg wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AL charge a fortune for airport runs last I checked. Central London to LHR via uber-x is 30 quid or so.

But there are fast and frequent train services that cost less than that, so it doesn't make a huge difference whether or not Uber is an option for that route.

All of which are completely unsuited to use with luggage, and/or require you to first get to Paddington station.

Re: Uber London loses licence to operate

#350

Post by foldr » Fri, Sep 22, 2017, 1:11 PM UTC

jen20 wrote: post #349

foldr wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are fast and frequent train services that cost less than that, so it doesn't make a huge difference whether or not Uber is an option for that route.

All of which are completely unsuited to use with luggage, and/or require you to first get to Paddington station.

So get the AL to Paddington then get on the Heathrow Express. The Heathrow Express has never been very crowded in my experience, and has at least as much room for luggage as a cab does.