Caporegime
That's not a bug, it's a feature.
Those numbers include Uber drivers.
Soldato
And black cab drivers and minicab drivers. Let's ban them all and everyone can walk. That will be much safer.
Why are some people only able to work in extremes? Black cabs aren’t the only alternative to Uber and banning all taxis isn’t the only solution to the crimes committed by drivers.
Have a read of why Uber has been banned and most other private hire firms haven’t been. It’s about the obstruction of justice and the evasion of authorities. I doubt Addison Lee or any of the other app-based taxi firms in London have included the equivalent of greyball in their apps.
Uber will make some concessions and a deal will be struck. I doubt there will be a single minute where Uber drivers aren’t on London’s roads.
I'm not sure that I understand what you mean with *maximums*.
Depending on the time of day, the meter will run on Rate 1 from 05.00 until 20.00, Rate 2 from 20.00 until 22.00, and Rate 3 from 22.00 until 05.00.
If you get in a black cab at e.g. 21.40, the meter will run on Rate 2 until 22.00, then automatically switch to Rate 3, it will keep running on Rate 3 until the journey ends, unless, in an extremely unlikely scenario, you're still in the cab at 05.00, when it will revert to Rate 1.
There is no maximum, the meter won't stop at say £250.00, it will keep ticking over.
Of course, there are occasions, when a fare will flag you down in The City at 01.00, and say e.g., "I need to get to Westerham, will you do it for £120.00 cash."
If you live somewhere like Bromley, Beckenham, Catford etc., and were thinking it was time to go home, you"d drag the guy in through the window.
TFL are very clear that "Transport for London (TfL) licenses and regulates taxi and private hire services in London. As part of this, we set the maximum fares that taxis (black cabs) can charge"
It's not unfeasible that less could be charged to increase competition. After all, black cabs can be cheaper with some apps anyway.
I believe this comes down to following and some extra info.
Normal Private Hire:
- Same PCO required documents at driver recruitment;
- Some minicab offices have higher quality standards and they will veto their drivers based on their customers;
- Has dispatchers;
- Has active call takers;
- Dispatchers are in control 24 x 7 on whats going on.
- Takes few minutes for customer to reach minicab office to sort out problems or complains;
- Most don't keep dodgy drivers or bad drivers, they will get sucked immediately ( the ones overcharge, perverts, aggressive and so on ).
- Driver has to see office personal pretty much every hour or so;
- Dispatchers and office personal get to know the driver character pretty much.
- PCO does usual 6 monthly routine checkups on on each minicab office, they will check driver documents, journeys and few other required documents such as complaints and lost n found records.
- Dodgy drivers using someone else documents cannot work in these offices.
- Dodgy drivers cannot use someone else vehicle.
- Prices are standard. Works out cheaper then black minicabs, slightly higher then Uber depending on mileage.
- Cant cover all areas and vehicle availability could take up to 15 minutes or more depending on how busy it is.
- Same PCO required documents at driver recruitment;
- No dispatchers;
- No active call takers;
- Driver and customer has to use email to get support which could take long.
- Drivers are pretty much in control e.g cancelling jobs, customer complains and so on.
- Takes any drivers;
- Keeps doggy drivers until their credit is run out.... 5 Star to start then goes down with each complain.
- Drivers don't see office personal often which allows the driver to get away with some of the stuff, e.g cancelling job then saying customer didn't came out and so on.... More info will be explained on drivers separately.
- Not sure about how PCO checks Uber records but unless its changed most drivers were using bank accounts in different countries to get away from tax....
- Dodgy drivers can use others PCO documents and start working in Uber, such as Original document holder applies for Job then someone else drives the car around as they don't visit Uber office.
- Unless changed prices are not standard at all, they have surge charge rate once an area becomes busy surge charge goes up to maybe 1.5x to 5x or more ( 50x in some countries )
- Extra charge for waiting in traffic..... + other charges.
- Can cover most areas and vehicle availability could take 5 mins or more.
Now lets talk about drivers;
Being in this trade for 14 years i am just going by my experience and the areas i worked in so i hope i am not offending any drivers here.
Minicab industry is very fast moving trade, we had drivers coming and going nearly every week. Most private hire or minicab drivers are really bad, uneducated, came from third world countries and didn't bother improving them self at all. Most drivers that cannot work in typical private hire offices or the ones kicked out are still working in Uber.
Perverts i cant stress this enough the amount of drivers we kicked out from our office is unbelievable, As i said most drivers are from 3rd world countries and when they see skin they get hard on so easily or if the customer smiles at them they understand that completely wrong that they try their best to get laid. Most of them look at European woman very differently, if they see customer wearing cleavage or mini skirts they are either an easy target, ***** and list goes on. This is what makes it difficult for Uber to keep drivers under control. If a customer complain we take action, even if customer does not complain we still take action when drivers talk to each other when they get back to minicab office, either another driver reports them or we hear them when they are talking about it. We then take action as far as reporting them to police.
In my experience i felt i need to always keep them in leash not to overcharge, yes any opportunity they get they will try to overcharge, when they do customers usually call our office straight away and confirm the price, few mistakes like this and that driver gets kicked out where as in Uber they have a star system and until drivers stars runs out they continue working there.
Point is if there are 300 private hire offices around London that means 300 to 1000 dispatchers, 1000 to 3000 call takers dealing with drivers face to face daily keeping them at bay while with Uber its an automated service where complains are dealt with emails. Drivers are only called to their office if its something very serious so most drivers get away with overcharging or with other stuff.
Competition is good for this trade but because of Uber most companies specially in South London are forced to close down. If all private hire firms close their business down then Uber will have a big monopoly where they will be charging surge prices all day long.
I can keep talking about this industry but being up all night xD
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lol ^
Thanks Vanilla, I can only assume from your statement that TFL say that they set the maximum fares that Black Cabs can charge, that TFL mean that THEY REGULATE, and CHECK that the meter is calibrated correctly to run at Rates, 1, 2, and 3, and cannot exceed those Rates.
Whenever there is a change in the metered rate, this is done by the companies that supply and service the meter, it involves removing the seal, adjusting the meter electronically, then resealing the meter, all overseen and checked by a service technician, employed by the meter supplier, and authorised by TFL to inspect the finished article.
Then TFL will periodically stop and check taxis to to ensure that the meter is calibrated correctly, if it isn't, TFL will disable it, until it's recalibrated, resealed and checked, you can't work without a meter, so you're out of work until the meter is fixed, plus you'll be looking at a prosecution.
If there is a way of overriding the meter calibration, I'm unaware of it, and a driver would be pretty dumb to try it, as the punishment is a bit heavier than a slap on the wrist I think.
I did hear, years ago, that taxi drivers in some Eastern European city, Prague?, Budapest?, had been found to have fitted smaller wheels to their cars, as their meters were calibrated to tick over according to how many revolutions the wheels made, ergo, smaller wheels, more revolutions.
I can't speak for every Black Cab driver in London, but personally, I couldn't be ***** with that.
But I thought the issue with checks was re: background checks? Which AFAIK TFL carries out? Thanks for the general info but it doesn't seem we have any specifics re: the alleged issues uber is failing on.
I'd be a bit skeptical about uber drivers being able to overcharge - the route they take is audited and a customer can easily see if they're diverting from the suggested route etc.. or take a longer detour - very easy to complain and get a refund in that instance - not so easy if picked up by a mini cab and having to negotiate with the driver or some guy with a clip board outside a night club - ditto to a black cab driver who can take any route he wants.
I get your point re: the lack of contact with the drivers - how they're all dealt with at arms length via the app - (though again the constant feedback from each trip ought to rectify that which you don't get with a regular mini cab firm unless someone calls to complain, ditto to third world types sharing licences, surely in a dodgy mini cab firm that is easier to do where their ID is just hung from say the real view mirror etc.. whereas in uber you're sent a picture of their face and told to report them if it is a different person). This is why I'd be curious if there was some data/transparency here re: complains/offences by mini cab drivers as people can verbally argue the reasons for and against each side but the actual data would be a bit more objective - is uber encountering a greater rate of assaults etc.. relative to the number of trips or not?
I'm sure this is true but as I posted a long time ago Uber is banned in a number of "progressive" cities. Austin for example is a big, up and coming tech hub with Apple offices etc. It's banned there. Vancouver also.
Uber is no longer banned in Austin. The state overruled the city’s regulations despite the regulations being backed by residents.
I think Vancouver banned Uber because they wanted to cap the number of taxi drivers in the city.
I'm not sure your point is applicable to London, there isn't any reason in principle why a service like uber's isn't allowed here there is (allegedly) an issue with uber complying with current regulations that is all. Those issues can be addressed and/or appealed.
Soldato
Does robbing you customer blind count as an attack? If so I suspect that across the board its 100%
This article on Uber and London is incredibly well-researched and... very long. It’s a great starting point if you’re wondering what’s going on though.