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

I'm always amazed at how fatalist about this sort of thing Londoners are. Like losing Uber will be a massive problem for a huge portion of the population. London has, by FAR, the best, cheapest and most efficient public transport in the entire UK. Uber is, yeah, cheaper than a black cab but also why is it cheaper? Worse working conditions, VC-subsidised, lower standards for vetting (as we've seen here!) It's not sustainable, and while there's obviously a market need for a cheaper app-based minicab service in London, Uber has proven repeatedly that it can't be trusted to do that.

Cost is only one, relatively small, part of Uber's USP in London. The general shittiness of Black Cab drivers about taking you anywhere close to the edges of zone 1 is the biggest issue for me. Night tube only runs on Fri/Sat nights so I literally couldn't get home from a late week night without Uber.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Uber riders blocking taxi ranks if Uber actually stopped operating, Black Cabs serve very few Londoners.

Edit: Not "literally couldn't get home", I would just have to spend over an hour on a night bus.

> Uber is, yeah, cheaper than a black cab but also why is it cheaper?

Another huge reason is that black cab drivers need to pass The Knowledge, a test of London streets, that often takes 3-4 years of study to pass, and AFAIK the requirements for this test haven't changed in the age of smartphones. This is utterly absurd with modern GPS, and just serves as protectionism and a false barrier to entry for new drivers.

This comment is based as can be. I don't care if my driver has memorized the streets 100%. I just want a ride down the street for a halfway reasonable price, and the reason I probably want it is because a car is a bit faster and much more lazy/convenient to get there, especially with 3 friends who don't feel like power walking and changing trains twice.

> I literally couldn't get home from a late week night without Uber.

Don't be ridiculous. Private hire minicabs have existed since the 1960s.

My friend who is from Woking said that southerners typically viewed everything as an eternal crisis and were always in a rush. He said it was far different moving to the Midlands, and I think it gets less panicky the further north you go.

Perhaps it's a regional condition?

I don't know what I'm missing, but why not let customers decide if they want to use a lower standards for vetting service, and let drivers decide if they want worse working conditions. Note that I don't completely agree with your statements, but assuming they're true, my question still stands.

That sounds like a pretty typical urban/rural, economically-productive/less-so distinction. In England that happens to line up somewhat along the N/S axis

Because the UK - like most of Europe - believes the free market is a poor mechanism to protect vulnerable people from rape and physical assault.

I'm not being flippant here: customers have routinely shown that for lower prices they'll suffer almost anything, to the point that safer alternatives become uncompetitive.

TfL isn't asking for much here: just that drivers are vetted properly and consistently. Every other firm in London is asked to do it, and complies. If Uber can put them all out of business by saving money on not doing that, the market will make the industry less safe for passengers.

We have voted in people to ensure that doesn't happen, because we want protection from the free market, simple as.

Nowadays you can book most of them via apps as well, either a company's own app (e.g. Addison Lee), or an aggregator like Kabbee.

Is there actually any data that shows traditional taxis are safer? I bet there isn't because if there was it would have been used by the taxi companies by now.

Because by the time you find out whether a particular company's vetting was good enough, it's far too late. It's a lemon market, and regulation is the standard, economist-approved solution to those.

"A few years ago a genuinely licensed black cab driver was convicted of rape and sexual assault, and as a result the community was shaken: it was the first time in over 300 years where a licensed operator had been convicted of such a crime" - PaulRobinson - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21630846

Do we have any numbers on sexual assaults by Uber drivers in London?

Vetted properly and consistently like John Worboys was?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys

But does that make Birmingham "the North"? I don't think so; although it is certainly north of London, it isn't the north and the attitudes in Brum are a bit different to Londonium.

Perhaps it's the London / out of London divide. The BBC certainly has a London-centric approach to news on its all-day news-recycling channel, I noticed.

Agreed. I live and work in the second biggest city in the UK and our transport system is 10000% less reliable and more expensive than London. Yet it's still quite adequate. Trains come every 10 minutes, rather than every 2 minutes.

I assume mentioning AL is a joke. Hadn't heard of Kabbee before though, doesn't look outrageously expensive for one of my common journeys.