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Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

(www.bbc.com)
256 points reubensutton | 6 comments | 25 Nov 19 10:19 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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_vrmm ◴[25 Nov 19 10:59 UTC] No.21627000[source]▶
I know this opinion is not popular but I'm so happy everytime I see bad news for Uber and all these companies that only exist thanks to basically exploiting THEIR workers.

Private transporting is not sustainable and it is not something that has to be affordable for everyone, even less by lowering workers wages or playing with the tariffs by demand. Taxi regulations gives us passengers safety and fair prices. There are taxi apps that work exactly like Uber's like 'Free-now' where you can see your trip, its aproximate cost, the driver's rating...

We have to promote governments that support affordable and good quality public transport, even though I love driving alone in my car.

I hope Deliveroo, Glovo and other companies are also punished for their labour rights abuses. Make sure your delivery guy is payed fairly or either go to the restaurant yourself.

So many years of labour rights fights being attacked by these startups that do not invent anything but base their business model on lower wages.

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xorcist ◴[25 Nov 19 11:44 UTC] No.21627230[source]▶
> you can see your trip, its aproximate cost, the driver's rating

Here's the thing: I don't want to rate my driver. I want to be able to rely on a third party that all available drivers are punctual and competent. It is not a choice I want to make.

Too much responsibility is already dumped on consumers under the guise of choice. Quality control of services I utilize is something I expect to pay for.

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eyko ◴[25 Nov 19 12:06 UTC] No.21627349[source]▶
It's not like Black cabs in London are guaranteed to be safe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys
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Cougher ◴[25 Nov 19 12:21 UTC] No.21627448[source]▶
Given that there are something like 20,000 black cabs in London, I'm seeing your one outlier from 10 years ago as a pretty solid argument in favor of them. And that's before we start debating about the merits of driver vetting processes and vehicle maintenance requirements.
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1. isostatic ◴[25 Nov 19 12:35 UTC] No.21627546[source]▶
Private hire drivers are vetted, and their cars have to undergo enhanced MOTs
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2. Cougher ◴[25 Nov 19 12:51 UTC] No.21627666[source]▶
Color me convinced by your exhaustive comparison.
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3. lhopki01 ◴[25 Nov 19 14:11 UTC] No.21628222[source]▶
And this is why Uber lots it's license. It wasn't properly vetting private hire drivers. It's not hard. Follow the rules and they'll get their license back.
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4. Jommi ◴[25 Nov 19 15:16 UTC] No.21628776[source]▶
I'm just perplexed. What are you even commenting on? Uber isnt the one vetting private drivers, they just check if they have the private driver license or not. This is up to tfl.
5. isostatic ◴[26 Nov 19 09:18 UTC] No.21636683[source]▶
What difference in vetting is there between Black Cab drivers and Minicab drivers in London?

What difference in vehicle maintenence?

The vetting process may be flawed, but it's flawed in both hackney carriage and phv licensing. This was acknowleged by say Milton Keynes, which gave a Hackney + PHV license to an applicant with convictions for rape and other serious sexual offences [0]

I have no confidence in London that the vetting process works, and the authorities are far more interested in retaining an obsolete cartel. Rather than fix their vetting procedure (which has always allowed dodgy minicab firms, which were never a threat to the powerful black cab industry), they concentrate on Uber.

[0] https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/pressreleases/2014/aug/taxi...

6. isostatic ◴[26 Nov 19 10:41 UTC] No.21637112[source]▶
The onus is on TFL to vet the drivers.

Uber lost the license because they were 'not fit or proper', nothing to do with vetting, seemingly because of a feature of the website that seemingly allows drivers to upload new photos and get other people to drive for them

> A key issue identified was that a change to Uber's systems allowed unauthorised drivers to upload their photos to other Uber driver accounts.

Other minicab firms of course don't have a photo on an app, and the passenger has to check the photo once they've got in the car (I believe PHV drivers have to show their PHV license from TFL), which puts passengers in a far worse situation when the driver doesn't match. I wonder how many small minicab firms have been determined to be not fit or proper.