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.

I am glad they're not having their licence renewed. The uber business model is completely exploitative of the drivers. Also- Uber is one of the biggest investors in research into self-driving vehicles. What they want is to destroy all competitors, then introduce ai-operated cars, and all those drivers will be on the scrap heap.
People will then be forced to use uber-driverless as there won't be any black cab/private hire taxis left.

I live in zone 3 SE London and trust me, it's prohibitively expensive to get a black cab there, which I will now have to do if I ever want to stay out past 1130pm... which as an adult, I would like to sometimes. There's no longer a cheap option.

Er... no. Uber will clean up their act or there will be another similar service that will take over as the demand is there for alternative to a black cab.

I've used both and prefer uber. I like the transparency of knowing who is picking me up and being able to track the car as it arrives. The ratings gel ensure a pleasant journey. I never worry about running out of money if the ride is longer than I expected.

What's an Uber?

@5rivers7hills

Uber drivers know nothing about London, except the data they see in front of them.

Taxid drivers have knowledge and context and experience.

An Uber driver might know that red thing is a tomato and the screen says it's a fruit.

The taxi driver knows you must never put it in a fruit salad.

An

how do you think people outside of London (without Uber)

Well I'm well outside London and I get Uber

I'm presuming Uber will still be operational for the coming weeks or is it an immediate stop? Planning on using them in London when I visit for a meeting in a fortnight

The uber business model is completely exploitative of the drivers.

In that case, let's definitely rush forward with driverless taxis - travel when you want, where you want, without anyone being exploited or abused - passenger or driver. Maybe in 10-15 years if we're lucky.

Good

It is a company based on legal loopholes and strong-arm political pressure that was always bound to be closed down. London is a huge and influential city, and this will embolden other markets to close them down too.

Whatever happened to market forces... For those of you who don't like uber, don't use Uber.

For the rest of us, it is interfering big government bullshit that I hate.

I remember the bad old days before uber where it was an unaffordable black cab (£40 to go from central to zone 2 vs £14 in an uber), an illegal minicab or a night bus where I then had to walk 15 mins from the bus stop on my own..

Whatever the risk of assault in an uber, it's better than the alternatives where I'd bet good money on there being more sexual assaults in illegal minicabs or walking home alone.

My personal experience of uber drivers is prompt, polite service, it's a big blow to the vast majority of uber workers as well as the millions of users in London. It's my choice what is the safest alternative for transport.

Hope Londoners are enjoy the Labour mayor they voted for...

My personal experience of uber drivers is prompt, polite service, it's a big blow to the vast majority of uber workers as well as the millions of users in London

Something app based will replace it, more people than ever before take "cabs" thanks to Uber and the convenience and that market isn't going to go away over night.

Yeah clueless
Those interfering bullshit governments who want a cab company to carry out a basic background check on drivers to make sure they have got a criminal record, or an illness that makes them unfit to drive

How bloody dare they require a level of public safety

I love Uber. No need for cash, the peace of mind of having the journey and driver recorded and trackable. I hope they sort themselves out fast. I don't want to go back to unreliable mini-cabs or expensive and uncomfortable black cabs. And as I live south of the river the chances of getting a black cab to bring me home at night are minimal.

I want to keep UBER, pay slightly more , and have them make less profit, and follow decent practices

I get annoyed by this Black Cab issue though, all over the world business fail when they fail to evolve. why should they be immune from this?

I love Uber. I also hate that I love Uber, but I live in South-East London and just try getting a black cab from here to anywhere, it's impossible! It's also bloody difficult getting one that will agree to go over the river. As well as expensive.

To my mind BC's are suffering the results of refusing to innovate for years. In the same way WH Smith, Border's, Toys R us, etc have suffered being so late to the dot.com boom and effectively letting Amazon walk in and steal their business. I mean BC wouldn't accept cards for years, and their drivers still refuse to take you on journeys that cross the river. And their app is late to the table. So why complain when someone comes along with a plan that meets those needs?

No I don't like the fact that they exploit their workers, but I shop at Tesco and other big SM that pretty much exploit farmers and shop workers on a regular basis, plus Amazon et al., Sadly sometimes being poor makes it hard to be wholly ethical as one would want to be.

plus the last black taxi I took didn't know the way, tried to turn into a 1 way street, and used a sat nav. and charged me £40

I have also had local Ubers that know the area, and are happy to get advice on the fastest route

meh

I remember the bad old days before uber where it was an unaffordable black cab (£40 to go from central to zone 2 vs £14 in an uber), an illegal minicab or a night bus where I then had to walk 15 mins from the bus stop on my own..

Or a legal minicab...

I thought the whole South of the River thing was an urban myth? I lived in London in the late 90's and never came across this?

What's it all about?

The minicab we used to bring DD back from the hospital when she was three was from the official firm listed on a plate at the payphone in reception. The driver I suspect had bought his licence in his country of origin, if he had one at all. He took a bizzarre route, drove like a maniac, and lost a driver side wing mirror to an oncoming car. He then had a shouting match with the driver he collided with, causing DW to put her hands over DD ears so she didn't hear the swearing.

Apart from that, my experiences with London minicabs have been fine.

I haven't used Uber, just haven't needed a taxi in recent years.

I suspect that the greater monitoring and the feedback processes mean Uber is probably a better option in most respects than most minicab firms.

Oh yes, the illegal minicabs outside of nightclubs when its 3am and you live miles away from your mates

sat there wondering if this is the day you are going to get raped and killed

shudders

What they want is to destroy all competitors, then introduce ai-operated cars, and all those drivers will be on the scrap heap.

Yeah? And so what? That will be superb when taxis are all driverless.

Super safe. Efficient.

Acidophilus

Just to check - do you know why they're losing their licence?

This is quite a measured commentary on the TFL decision

www.citymetric.com/transport/tfl-just-told-uber-it-wasn-t-fit-and-proper-company-provide-cabs-london-here-s-why-s-good

Essentially if Uber gets their house in order they should have their licence reinstated

I use black cabs via MyTaxi wherever possible (and now all cabs have to accept cards this makes life lots easier)

But outside of zone 1 they're pretty thin on the ground

And minicabs aren't nearly as quick, you don't get the record of the driver, and crucially you can't pay with cards

I used to have a Kabbee account which I'll have to see if still works, as that enabled me to get a minicab using one central app

But uber definitely won on convenience - never a problem getting a car, pay with card so no worries about having cash on you, and receipts emailed to you (great for work transport as makes expenses easy)

Or a legal minicab...

If you don't mind waiting longer. Presumably the ones who tout for business outside central London nightspots are all illegal, as they are not allowed to do that. Those are the ones I used to take back when I had a life. It was usually quicker to locate one of those than take a black cab, which I was equally willing to do. How do you locate a legal minicab? Presumably you have to phone, which already makes it vastly less convenient, before you even get to the issue of how you locate each other..

I'm basing this on my experience 25 years ago, things may have changed since mobiles never mind smartphones were invented. Are any other taxi apps mostly similar to Uber?