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

(www.bbc.com)
256 points reubensutton | 4 comments | 25 Nov 19 10:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.929s | source
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maxehmookau ◴[25 Nov 19 14:54 UTC] No.21628572[source]▶
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.
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1. rovek ◴[25 Nov 19 15:00 UTC] No.21628637[source]▶
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.

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2. Symbiote ◴[25 Nov 19 15:47 UTC] No.21629114[source]▶
> 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.

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3. _delirium ◴[25 Nov 19 18:15 UTC] No.21631033[source]▶
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.
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4. rovek ◴[26 Nov 19 11:43 UTC] No.21637435{3}[source]▶
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.