to be furious they have banned Uber from London?

[Acidophilus]

WTF?

Uber has itsbissues but this is ridiculous.

TFL have bowed to Black cab pressure and we will all pay massively for it. Or get mini cabs that are less safe and treat heir drivers worse.

@Nuttynoo - no part of the tube is 24/7

@Bisquick - how do you think people outside of London (without Uber) cope during childbirth? Am surprised you were even able to mess around with the app in labour
Also I'm well aware that not all brown people are terrorists - am one of them.

@Waawo - Yes it is on weekends. Check the night tube out.

Yes - so that’s 24/2 then?

I use Uber a lot in London. I find them convenient and reasonable priced. I have also used them a lot in the States. I find them excellent.

Black cabs are too expensive for me to use often. I have also got friends who live South of the River with lots of storied of black cabs refusing the journey and being stuck up in London.

I would never travel alone in an uber or minicab, but I would travel alone in a black cab.

I hope Uber sorts themselves out!

Black cab drivers just refuse to take you if you're going out of the way. Then your stuck in zone 1 trying to get to zone 5. That's fun. Uber really helped with avoidin that.

*avoiding

@Waawo on weekends yes. I've used it myself last week.

Uber have to sort their shit out, and make it safe for people especially women to travel in their cabs.

Yes, YABU. Get a fucking grip.

I'm disappointed. A slightly personal slant, but I am now intimidated by black cab drivers, as I and many friends/family have experienced racism from them. So cabs not stopping, but picking up the white people further down the road, or rudeness within the cab etc. With Uber and minicabs we have never got that, so it feels so much less stressful to get a cab from them. Uber drivers have always been impeccably behaved and polite. Obviously I feel very bad for those who have suffered sexual assaults etc, but my negative experiences have been at the hands of black cab drivers, so I will miss Uber.

Hopefully they can improve their practices and regain their licence. I agree courts would not have removed their licence without some good evidence.

After years of living in London and taking Black Cabs, mini cabs and Uber's my only problems have been:

• with Black Cabs in terms of not being able to get one when I need one and in terms of paying out of my ears for them to have The Knowledge which is unnecessary in the age of the sat nav
• with mini cabs when I have had some weird drivers who made me feel unsafe.

With Uber I have found the drivers desperate to please to keep their ratings up. Mini cab drivers don't care about feedback, it's irrelevant to them.

You have to be a fucking moron to sexually assault a passenger as an uber driver.

There is al log of your face, name, registration plate and exact route and time traveled!!!

@nuttynoo - err everyone who's outside in London in my online antenatal group either drives or has a birth partner who drives. Only one other person doesn't and was having a long debate about whether she should call an ambulance at the right time.

@Nuttynoo I live somewhere outside London which only recently got Uber. We already had good reliable local minicab firms (with apps, tracking, online payment and all that jazz, which pay tax and have drivers who are their employees who actually receive minimum wage) which have suffered since Uber were allowed to start operating here. I don't know why people use Uber here, because they're almost always more expensive than the alternative - although a lot of the clientele are southern students who maybe just want to stick to what they know. Hopefully our city council might follow TFL's lead in its licensing decisions.

I've seen squeals of outrage today from some of my London based, Corbyn-voting socialist friends who are like totally against the gig economy, zero hours contracts, exploitation of workers and global companies not paying the right tax (except when it means they might have to pay a quid more for a taxi or get off their arse to pick up their own takeaway).

The taxi drivers are Luddites and Sadiq has caved to political pressure. It won't stand up in court.

They haven't banned Uber. They've revoked their licence because Uber are shits that don't properly DBS check their drivers, hide data from regulatory bodies, don't report serious fucking sexual assaults and rapes to the police, and treat their gig economy drivers badly.

They'll get their licence back before their appeal periods run out either by sorting their shit out and paying a bit more than lip service to Corporate Social Responsibility (unlikely) or by chucking lawyers at it (lawyers that you paid for, because you didn't pay a living wage to the person driving you around) (likely).

I'm fucking sick of these 'disruptive' 'aren't we wonderful' 'ooh look the gig economy' companies stepping all over established industries that pay a living wage to their staff (or something approaching it) and forcing prices ergo wages down and ignoring all attempts at proper regulation.

The most annoying thing: uber don't even make a profit off not paying their staff properly, they're still on endless funding rounds, presumably with the intention of taking the whole company public and creating a massive payday for early investors off the backs of the women they've thrown under the bus after assaults.

Cavender
I find this really interesting. I use Uber regularly where I live in the USA and it has a really good reputation. Why is it such a problem specifically in London?

Because London black cab drivers spend years learning The Knowledge (basically every street name, short cut, office, attraction and amenity in the centre of London) and the test has a low pass rate. It's not just getting a licence and using your sat nav like someone else mentioned upthread. These Uber dudes are taking their well earned business.

It's not just London that is having problems

Google India and the scandal there. The senior managements (US) attitude to the safety of women is repulsive

My two cents: Uber are a taxi company. They're making excellent use of computer systems to run their business, but they're still a taxi company and should stop pretending they aren't. "Ridesharing" my arse.

They aren't a taxi company. They're a private equity money farm. In the same way that Facebook and Google are advertising companies, not social media companies.

Alpha - how is it well earned? Its not necessart to do the Knowlege anymore. The fact they persevere with it just shows they aren't moving with the times.

Good, well done TFL!

I also know a really good ( in terms of service and treatment of staff) family owned taxi firm that just can't compete with Uber that has just started covering their area. But then, this company also pays its taxes.

I'm pleased too with the result

The Knowledge is obsolete in the days of the satnav. If you were skilled in processing film you saw your work trashed by the digital camera but nobody has suggested banning that. That's life, that's progress, that's change.