Uber to lose licence to operate in London

Daftbrown said:
I suppose what I mean is that I can imagine that you're good at a dinner party, for telling a good story. When I read the majority of your posts around this forum smooth jazz starts playing softly in the background, I sit back in my imaginary leather wingback, gently swirl my whisky around its glass and spark up a cigar.

Please, take it as the compliment it's intended to be. I am being friendly (and non-threatening).

(Et, bon, quand-meme un peu bête aussi :p)
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Tu es très gentil mon ami, merci bien.
 
d_brennen said:
Uber need to be taken to task on how they vet and treat drivers for sure. Every driver I've had personally has been exemplary though.

Won't matter when driverless Uber cars are a thing though. Even the black cabbie will be done for
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Driverless cars are still a long way off, despite Uber's attempts to cut corners on the R&D of them.

I'd be surprised if we see them operating in "driverless mode" in major cities like London (especially ones that aren't laid out with cars in mind, like London) for a decade or more at least.
 
Werewolf said:
Driverless cars are still a long way off, despite Uber's attempts to cut corners on the R&D of them.

I'd be surprised if we see them operating in "driverless mode" in major cities like London (especially ones that aren't laid out with cars in mind, like London) for a decade or more at least.
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IDK the pace of change often takes even experts in their field by surprise. A decade yes, much longer? Not while there's money to be had shedding meatbag jobs and selling new gizmos.
 
Jean-F said:
You can label anything a rip off if you think that you can get something just as good for less.
I just looked at two weeks in July, flying from London to Tampa FL, a 4 bedroomed pool home with full a/c in Spring Hill, (NOT ORLANDO), £900 for two weeks, plus £780 each for direct flights, and a full size rental car for £450, making it £2910 for two people.
You can also get two weeks A.I. in Majorca, same dates, for £1720 for two, not including a car.
Some would say that the Florida deal is a rip off, but I know which one I’d go for, and you might take 8 to the Florida 4 bedroom one, still £900 for two weeks, but cheaper individually with 8 chipping in, although you might then want two cars.
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Im guessing you're a black cab driver or have family that are?

There is no defending black cabs, total rip off and out of touch with the convenience and ease (and price) that uber offers.
 
Never used black cabs before, when you say total rip off, what do you mean?

Taxi service in Birmingham can be £5 for 1 mile depending on time of day.
 
Clov!s said:
Never used black cabs before, when you say total rip off, what do you mean?

Taxi service in Birmingham can be £5 for 1 mile depending on time of day.
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Probably the fact that Black cabs have a minimum fee and additional fees that are initially higher than Uber, despite the fact the fee levels are set by the councils not the cabbies (and are intended to allow for a living wage for the cabbie and to cover the costs of actually maintaining the specific class of vehicles they have to use), and that Uber will vary their fees upwards massively at busy times/if there is a surge in demand, something cabbies are not allowed to do.

Personally I would prefer to pay a bit more to get a consistent service that is run by people who understand and obey the law, not try and wiggle around their responsibilities to everyone and who will gouge the customer whenever they can.

Uber's behaviour worldwide over the last few years has to me demonstrated a company that cares nothing for the customers, nothing for the drivers, and nothing for the law, not a reassuring thought when you get in the car being driven by someone who may have had their sight test done via webcam...;)
 
Dj_Jestar said:
a journey that costs me ~£20 in an Uber cab, will cost me ~£25 in a minicab, and upwards of £50 in a black cab.
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Given the far more stringent regulations for black cabs* that's not surprising, it should really be a comparison between Uber and the minicabs and you need to remember surge pricing when complaining that a minicab is more expensive (until the aforementioned surge pricing kicks in and you find the uber can cost several times as much).



*Which includes having to use a very limited range of expensive vehicles that are designed to be usable by the disabled as opposed to being able to use virtually any car and have the excuse "sorry luv, no room for the wheelchair".
 
Werewolf said:
Given the far more stringent regulations for black cabs* that's not surprising, it should really be a comparison between Uber and the minicabs and you need to remember surge pricing when complaining that a minicab is more expensive (until the aforementioned surge pricing kicks in and you find the uber can cost several times as much).



*Which includes having to use a very limited range of expensive vehicles that are designed to be usable by the disabled as opposed to being able to use virtually any car and have the excuse "sorry luv, no room for the wheelchair".
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You say that as if its a good thing?

I'm curious what the ncap rating for a black cab is vs the uber cars.

Do black cabs have curtain airbags etc?
 
Werewolf said:
...*snip*...

Personally I would prefer to pay a bit more to get a consistent service that is run by people who understand and obey the law, not try and wiggle around their responsibilities to everyone and who will gouge the customer whenever they can.

Uber's behaviour worldwide over the last few years has to me demonstrated a company that cares nothing for the customers, nothing for the drivers, and nothing for the law, not a reassuring thought when you get in the car being driven by someone who may have had their sight test done via webcam...;)
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Damn right. Uber stinks of crapness. I wouldn't go near them as an employee or as a customer.
 
Clov!s said:
Never used black cabs before, when you say total rip off, what do you mean?

Taxi service in Birmingham can be £5 for 1 mile depending on time of day.
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Like 10 a mile in Switzerland lol... never see anyone using cabs, they seem to just sit outside the train stations 24/7 never moving.
Missed the last train from Zurich main stations to city in Zurich Kanton where I live..... 30mins ride 120chf and that was after negotiating 20chf off the meter price. So would have been 140chf or around £110

Wonder how much cheaper an uber would have been
 
Yadda said:
Damn right. Uber stinks of crapness. I wouldn't go near them as an employee or as a customer.
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You’re talking sense in my opinion, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Lord-Jaffa said:
Im guessing you're a black cab driver or have family that are?

There is no defending black cabs, total rip off and out of touch with the convenience and ease (and price) that uber offers.
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Yes, I drove a Black Cab for almost 30 years, I don’t now, but I do know what is involved in getting and keeping a Black Cab licence, and buying and maintaining a Black Cab, so what’s a rip off to you, was my earnings after laying all that out.
I do appreciate that an Uber is easy to get hold of, and that their fares are low, I also understand that their drivers are like the proverbial monkey, who’ll work around the clock for a bag of peanuts, I wasn’t.

Clov!s said:
Never used black cabs before, when you say total rip off, what do you mean?

Just a stab in the dark, but I’d say that he resents paying the rate for the job, (as specified by TFL), when he can get some peasant to cheerfully slash that price, so that means that he thinks that the Government agreed rate for the job, is a rip-off.

Werewolf said:
Probably the fact that Black cabs have a minimum fee and additional fees that are initially higher than Uber, despite the fact the fee levels are set by the councils not the cabbies (and are intended to allow for a living wage for the cabbie and to cover the costs of actually maintaining the specific class of vehicles they have to use), and that Uber will vary their fees upwards massively at busy times/if there is a surge in demand, something cabbies are not allowed to do.

Personally I would prefer to pay a bit more to get a consistent service that is run by people who understand and obey the law, not try and wiggle around their responsibilities to everyone and who will gouge the customer whenever they can.

Uber's behaviour worldwide over the last few years has to me demonstrated a company that cares nothing for the customers, nothing for the drivers, and nothing for the law, not a reassuring thought when you get in the car being driven by someone who may have had their sight test done via webcam...;)
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You’ll only annoy the Black Cab haters by coming on here and telling the truth, but thanks.

Dj_Jestar said:
Black cabs also have surge pricing.
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You are either on a monumental wind-up, or more likely you know that you’re LYING THROUGH YOUR TEETH.
Black Cabs do NOT have surge pricing, extras will only be loaded onto the meter at Christmas and New Year, and the meter price is the same for one passenger as it is for five.
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I'm yet to see surge pricing on Uber that would mean it would be cheaper to get a black cab so I don't so how they are a comparable service for normal people.

Back in the real world, minicabs have always done 'surge pricing', I remember sitting outside nightclub minicab ranks in the 90s and waiting over an hour for a very expensive minicab home with all kinds of drunken/drugged up louts. Sometimes I couldn't even get home at all and had to call my parents. When they are of age I'd far rather my kids use Uber where I can see where they are and know they aren't going to be stuck in a minicab office/rank for hours.
 
Werewolf said:
Given the far more stringent regulations for black cabs* that's not surprising, it should really be a comparison between Uber and the minicabs and you need to remember surge pricing when complaining that a minicab is more expensive (until the aforementioned surge pricing kicks in and you find the uber can cost several times as much).



*Which includes having to use a very limited range of expensive vehicles that are designed to be usable by the disabled as opposed to being able to use virtually any car and have the excuse "sorry luv, no room for the wheelchair".
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You have to remember that the stringent regulation is intentional so that the supply of black cabs is limited and can result in higher prices. The same exists across the world, some less implicitly.

Restrict supply (as close to arbitrarily as you can get) -> higher prices. Its what you get in a monopoly (if you can justify it, all the better). This is most famous in New York, where they aren't ashamed to admit it.
 
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muon said:
You have to remember that the stringent regulation is intentional so that the supply of black cabs is limited and can result in higher prices. The same exists across the world, some less implicitly.

Restrict supply (as close to arbitrarily as you can get) -> higher prices. Its what you get in a monopoly (if you can justify it, all the better). This is most famous in New York, where they aren't ashamed to admit it.
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As far as I understood it when I was driving them, the strict regulation was to make sure that every driver and/or fleet owner, was complying with the rules as laid down by Parliament, and overseen by TFL, and the Metropolitan Police.
What you have implied sounds like the other old chestnut, that the Public Carriage Office would hold applicants back, rather than “flood” the streets with drivers, utter poppycock, if you could satisfy the Examiners that you knew your way around London, and was “of good character”, you earned your badge, and got it.
As for taxis being famously restricted in New York, I don’t know what you’re smoking, but if you came out of the subway at 34th and Penn, you could walk all the way up 8th Ave to the New York Times building, on the block between W 40th and W 41st, on the roofs of yellow cabs.

Dj_Jestar said:
Black cabs... Obey the law... Hahahahahaha

@Jean-F so you deny tiered metering in black cabs?
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If by tiered metering you mean Rates 1, 2, and 3, which are, Rate 1, from 05.00 - 20.00, Mon - Fri, Rate 2, 20.00 - 22.00, Mon - Fri, and Sat and Sun 05.00 - 22.00, and Rate 3, every night 22.00 - 05.00, and Public Holidays, then no, I can hardly deny that, it’s on the fare chart on the r/o/s door of every Black Cab, but if you think of that as “surge pricing”, then you’re living in Fairyland, these are the rates agreed in discussion with TFL for working unsocial hours, they’re not charged at certain times when the streets get busy, those are the rates that are charged, unchanged, every day.
 
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