Uber in London = gone?

[outwar6010]

Its funny how they only care about bs regulations when it benefits people and not stuff like housing ie grenfell.

[Lucio]

Unsurprising, TFL has been looking for a way to do this for a while to protect London black cabs

That said, Uber (and the others like Lyft) are an explotative business model, if they had sense, they'd switch to being a driver platform and remove the risks entirely, let the drivers pick their jobs, set their own rates etc.

[Spud1]

Peronsally I think this seems like a bit of a shameless attack by TFL and leaves me wondering just what the black cab lobby groups paid over to get this through...

All cab firms whether hackney carriage or private hire have issues. Passengers get raped, assaulted, extorted, whatever..unfortunately bad things happen and no amount of checks will prevent this unfortunately.

Yes Uber has problems wihtnth way they manage and recruit (and pay...) their drivers, but so do other firms. The whole think stinks of tfl trying to protect the overpriced and out dated black cab drivers. Fingers crossed they win their appeal and this does not spread north - I pretty much exclusively use Uber now in Manchester unless really desperate and always feel much safer with an Uber than any other firm

[Saracen]

Personally, I think whether this decision is right or not depends entirely on the evjdence TfL have to support the issues they claim are behind the decision. And as that hasn't been published, i have nothing to go on.

It's a bit like a juror in a criminal trial being expected to reach a verdict by balancing a press release from the prosecution with a petition from the accused's friends and family.

In principle, I see nothing wrong with Uber-type services, or with self-employed drivers and zero-hour contracts IF that's wgat drivers want. If it isn't, don't work for Uber. Just like 3.5m passengers choosing Uber over black cabs, that's market forces for you.

Personally, I'm not likely to use either but if I did, it'd be bkack cab. 3.5m people chose differently.

[Lanky123]

Peronsally I think this seems like a bit of a shameless attack by TFL and leaves me wondering just what the black cab lobby groups paid over to get this through...

All cab firms whether hackney carriage or private hire have issues. Passengers get raped, assaulted, extorted, whatever..unfortunately bad things happen and no amount of checks will prevent this unfortunately.

Yes Uber has problems wihtnth way they manage and recruit (and pay...) their drivers, but so do other firms. The whole think stinks of tfl trying to protect the overpriced and out dated black cab drivers. Fingers crossed they win their appeal and this does not spread north - I pretty much exclusively use Uber now in Manchester unless really desperate and always feel much safer with an Uber than any other firm

I see all this as being entirely possible. But I also see it as entirely possible that Uber would routinely ignore inconvenient safety/hiring regulations if it decided that the regulator didn't really have any teeth. This could just be an exasperated TfL finally calling Uber's bluff.

As Saracen mentioned, I think more information is needed to decide which is the more unreasonable party. Even then, it might well depend on your politics or priorities. As far as I can tell though, TfL haven't banned the Uber business model, just failed to renew the licence of one operator (admittedly the market leader). Surely there are competitors (possibly with a more pragmatic approach to regulations) which can expand and probably hire most of the current Uber drivers?

[directhex]

Its funny how they only care about bs regulations when it benefits people and not stuff like housing ie grenfell.

TfL isn't in charge of housing

[spacein_vader]

I see all this as being entirely possible. But I also see it as entirely possible that Uber would routinely ignore inconvenient safety/hiring regulations if it decided that the regulator didn't really have any teeth. This could just be an exasperated TfL finally calling Uber's bluff.

As Saracen mentioned, I think more information is needed to decide which is the more unreasonable party. Even then, it might well depend on your politics or priorities. As far as I can tell though, TfL haven't banned the Uber business model, just failed to renew the licence of one operator (admittedly the market leader). Surely there are competitors (possibly with a more pragmatic approach to regulations) which can expand and probably hire most of the current Uber drivers?

Lyft is one of their competitors. Uber have now admitted to using Their tracking software (greyball) to identify which of their drivers also work for Lyft & then deliberately giving those drivers false or distant fares to tie them up for long periods so they can't be getting Lyft fares. They've also used the same software to identify regulators and enforcement officials & give them fake drivers who never show up.

TfL have banned Uber. They haven't banned the concept they use. Others will fill the void.

[postpeter]

It's a bit sad their methods are like that. I used Uber occasionally a couple of times and quite liked it

[iamlorro]

Lyft is one of their competitors. Uber have now admitted to using Their tracking software (greyball) to identify which of their drivers also work for Lyft & then deliberately giving those drivers false or distant fares to tie them up for long periods so they can't be getting Lyft fares. They've also used the same software to identify regulators and enforcement officials & give them fake drivers who never show up.

TfL have banned Uber. They haven't banned the concept they use. Others will fill the void.

Hopefully Uber will change, because London must be a pretty big market for them. It maybe that other regulators follow London's lead.

As my wife points out, doughnuts now are rubbish. All the good bakers have been killed by the supermarkets and we now get substandard mass produced crap. Uber style business models kind of lead to the same outcome in their respective industries. It doesn't sit too comfortably with me that.

Yeah, this is true in part - I agree that some will have been priced out of the market but you do have artisan bakers who produce higher quality goods for a higher price. (Though I guess maybe not in London)