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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

#451

Post by robocat »

travisoneill1 wrote: post #435
PaulRobinson wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the UK - like most of Europe - believes the free market is a poor mechanism to protect vulnerable people from rape and physical assault. I'm not being flippant here: customers have routinely shown that for lower prices they'll suffer almost anything, to the point that safer alternatives become uncompetitive. TfL isn't asking for much here: just that drivers are vetted properly and consistently. Every other fi…

Is there actually any data that shows traditional taxis are safer? I bet there isn't because if there was it would have been used by the taxi companies by now.

"A few years ago a genuinely licensed black cab driver was convicted of rape and sexual assault, and as a result the community was shaken: it was the first time in over 300 years where a licensed operator had been convicted of such a crime" - PaulRobinson - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21630846

Do we have any numbers on sexual assaults by Uber drivers in London?

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

#452

Post by andy_ppp »

Jommi wrote: post #441
andy_ppp wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Uber had to buy the vehicles, service them and pay full tax and fines it would be nearly as expensive as black cabs. I take my fair share of Uber rides but I can see the next dot com bust happening now when this unprofitable business model all washes out. See also WeWork.

Yes if a company does something that is not in the core specialisations, they would be expensive. Who guessed?

I'm talking about the gig economy ripping off their workers. I think you've misunderstood and been rude and sarcastic with it.

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

#453

Post by jotm »

zhte415 wrote: post #345
jotm wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was a real thing, I'd say building bridges/roads above the city would be the only viable (yet extremely difficult) solution. Maybe underground in some places. Would look pretty dystopian probably

This was tried with varying levels of success over the past 150 years and is known as the tube.

Ah yeah, the sky tube. Funny how you all focused on the "maybe underground" part.

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

#454

Post by Engineering-MD »

BurningFrog wrote: post #267
gorgoiler wrote: post #240

After living for years in London, it’s hard to compare Ubers with black cabs. In the centre of town during the day black cabs are often ubiquitous, immediately available, and skilled at getting you the hell out of dodge. Something for which I’m happy to pay a premium. Anywhere else they can be capricious and scarce. After 11pm this is the case with in fact almost all black cabs anywhere in the city, when a very diffe…

Takeaway: Maybe London should spend some effort becoming more naviagatable, instead of demanding professional drivers acquire a PhD level education (the Knowledge) to find their way.

Or perhaps we should use this as a reason to swap more to public transport and walking?

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

#455

Post by BurningFrog »

RodoBobJon wrote: post #333
BurningFrog wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always fascinated by the idea that paying someone $8/h is a crime, but paying them $0/h is perfectly fine. Such enormous cognitive dissonance. We humans are so good at that.

The idea that minimum wages kills jobs is not as well supported as you might think. People commonly take overly-simplified econ 101 labor market theories as gospel when the empirical evidence about the effects of minimum wage increases is decidedly mixed: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/11/20/20952151/shoul...

I'm not talking about that.

I just find it crazy that in the scenario where Uber pays someone poor $8/h while I pay them 0$/h, Uber is the bad guy, while I am completely blameless.

The only actor actually paying the poor person is somehow the problem!

It's hard for me to come up with a logical framework that supports that conclusion. So I think it's not actually a matter of logic.

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

#456

Post by esotericn »

alkonaut wrote: post #439
esotericn wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black cabs are the 'iconic taxis'. You hail them with your arm, yes. This is quite fine and normal because there are millions of them. Just like how you might signal for a bus.

Sorry I confused the term. What’s a non taxi service called some times? “Black car”? In any case: being able to hail a taxi on the street doesn’t mean it can’t be useful to pre book one with an app too. I you want to go to the airport in the morning from a house where few taxis pass, that’s what you need to do. In the 90s that meant calling a phone number but these days you want to use an app, pre pay in the app and…

They're all called taxis for the most part.

'Black cab' specifically refers to the famous London cars that have a particular shape.

I agree. Black cabs are hailed though, that's the point. You don't call a black cab, that's not how they work. That's what private hire (e.g. Uber) is for.

WRT buses: almost everywhere in the UK is request stop, or at least I wouldn't rely on just expecting the driver to guess.

There might be ten different buses stopping at your stop for example, so it's inefficient to just stop anyway, unless someone is already getting off.

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

#457

Post by kjs3 »

v64 wrote: post #353
folkrav wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Welcome to the rest of the world where people [...] only get paid at the end of every month. Wait, what? You get paid once a month? Is this a UK thing? Every single job I've had over here (Canada) was either once every two weeks, or two times a month.

Once a month is standard for salaried work in the US.

Nearly 40 years in the US workforce, many, many jobs, not a single one was once a month.

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

#458

Post by harel »

cactus2093 wrote: post #415
harel wrote: post #198

I'm not a fan of companies like Uber or AirBnB who attempt a violent takeover of a market. However, as a consumer who needs to get from A to B, or stay at some random city, I find those services invaluable. The black cabs in London are expensive, never around when you need them, and until recently might have refused card payments (now they just seem unhappy about it). At the very least I was hoping Uber would make th…

You call it a violent takeover, but then go on to describe them as simply providing a better service than existing competiors. ??!? And this seems to just be the commonly accepted narrative among upper middle class progressives, so much so that nobody even bats an eye at the extraordinary contradiction. I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality lately. All tech is evil, that's just a fact, but it has improved ou…

First, as someone who strives for balance, I can't sit idle when you say "All tech is evil". That is just not true. We are all tech. all of us here. Very few people on this planet are "evil". However, many actions are perceived as evil by some and good by others. Google is not evil - they might do some things wrong, or badly but I don't believe they are inherently "evil". Neither is Uber or Facebook or any other tech company (Spam farms not included). And yes, the tech has improved our life tremendously. And it has done so at an accelerated rate over the last decade+. So fast that I really think we failed to adjust in time and are swinging from extremes at the moment. We were given "Social Media" and are now learning how to navigate both "social" and "media" together. We got tech giants and now learning what they can/cannot do. Give humans time. We're not as clever as we'd like to believe - we take time to adjust.

And yes, I think Uber's attempt to squash all competition is bad. But because they are managing to do it, the smaller firms lack driver mass and when i need to get from A to B, I'm stuck with Uber. Tomorrow I will try Kapten, and if that works fine, I'll just use it. If it doesn't deliver, I'll stick with uber while it's around. Between standing in the rain and using Uber - my choice is already made up. Still doesn't mean i need to like them.

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

#459

Post by deminature »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #399
eggy wrote: post #247

If the concern over rider safety was that somebody could pose as an Uber driver and update a photo to make it work, why are black cabs not also deemed unsafe? Couldn't somebody borrow a friend's black cab, slap on a fake photo, and work the city? Maybe a stretch, and more work, but the same concern is there, no? I guess the black cabs have some powerful lobbyists in parliment? Yellow taxis in NYC were a monopoly, and…

> Couldn't somebody borrow a friend's black cab, slap on a fake photo, and work the city? There is concern that this is happened in the past and penalties are extremely severe: the owner of the original license will lose their badge and may face criminal charges. It's a bit hard to describe the taxi market in London to anybody who doesn't live here, but it's a closed shop only to the extent that if you're prepared to…

>There are no lobbyists in parliament

Black Cab drivers have the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association lobbying for them politically https://twitter.com/TheLTDA

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

#460

Post by harel »

throwaway35784 wrote: post #443
harel wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not driven by ideology. And yes. I'm not a fan and I'll pay them if they provide me a service I need at a time I need it. I'm also not a fan of the government but I pay my taxes. I'm upset with Netflix for cancelling great shows but i pay my subscription fee. I despise my regular commute train line. Hate it to levels you cannot imagine - but guess from where I'm typing this? Google is scum, Facebook is scum, Twit…

It's not ideology.It's Pavlovian science. If you reward behavior, you get more of it.

And if I stand in the rain because i'm waiting for a black cab or the other app don't have driver's in my area, I get more wet.
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