Uber in London Loses its License

Which is a shame because we used them all over London with great success. Timely drivers, clean cars, friendly and we waited no more than a couple of minutes for the nearest driver to pull up right where we were standing.

The drivers will I hope be able to go and work for other minicab firms. The way Uber works in the UK is not that innovative frankly as it might be elsewhere. There are reportedly 30,000 of them so rather a lot.

As private hire vehicles are licensed by local authorities Uber can continue to operate elsewhere in the UK subject to review by each as it comes up.

Back to the scandalous rip off charges by the Black Cab Mafia, one of the many reasons I dislike visiting London.

Uber is appealing and can continue to operate while appealing.

Used it once.

Driver couldn't find his way out of a match box. His lack of knowledge made my ride disconcerting. Was a waste of my time and money.

I'll hang with the Black Cab Mafia any day because they do know their job. Pricey yes but it's my money and for the 1 cab ride I might take while their I'm willing to pay for their professional knowledge. I've also found their fares negotiable and via conversations over the years have enjoyed recommended non touristy restaurants, pubs and sites.

Good Riddance to Uber. I'd rather give my money Black Cabs, money which stays in the community, and provides which a living wage to its drivers, instead of investment bankers in silicon valley.

Claudia and Michael: couldn't agree more.

Sorry I can't link this from this tablet , you will find Jack Rosenthal's brilliant film about London cab drivers on YouTube . " The Knowledge " will be well worth your time . I also say good riddance to Uber .

This comes on the heels of the banning of Taxify - who did everything in their power to get in the back door and take on uber but failed, watch this space for the next try - and right after TfL announced that both uber and the other massive minicab firm Addison Lee would have huge price rises for their licence - from some small number of thousands of Pounds up to something like 3 millions of Pounds each.

So something's in the wind no matter what..... if they manage to stay around London I can see uber fares going up through the roof...

black cabs as much as we did a couple of years ago, but they are
simply pricing themselves out of the market.

So far this year Uber has lost 1.3 billion dollars. Uber's cheaper rates are unsustainable. Every Uber ride is subsidized by investors by at least 50%. Uber is on track to be one of the biggest startup failures in history. In addition it's driver turnover rate is horrendous, very few stick with them in the long-term, even fewer "earn a living" from Uber.

https://nyti.ms/2wj7UvD

TfL is strapped for cash after the Mayor's promises regarding price freezes etc.

If you believe Uber's own description of their model, the drivers are not their employees, backed up by one driver interviewed who claimed all they do is provide him with some fares; he has to get his own personal licence and car etc.

The difficulty for visitors in particular to London is that the minicabs firms are largely localised. Uber is one of the few well-known companies, possibly the only one internationally.

Maybe TfL will finally allow minicabs to have taximeters, like they do everywhere else.

The business travel community in Flyertalk both British and international is having an interesting discussion with most shaking its head that the black taxis with their punitive pricing now have a means of eliminating the competition so they don't have to compete. These cabbies have a very powerful lobbying group in the LTDA that knows how to influence government regulators at the TFL.

From Flyertalk: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland/1868236-uber-being-banned-london.html

Hundreds of thousands have signed a petition in just a few hours; what good or how effective is a petition? Is it an election year for London's mayor as the petition is to him. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/22/petition-save-uber-goes-viral-hits-16000-signatures-less-hour/

I don't use Uber in the UK as there are other car services that are cheaper and just as good. So when will Lyft come to London?

In the 18th century stagecoaches couldn't pick up passengers within London so as to not compete with hackney carriages.

Keith can you share minicab apps that are good in London?
RE: "there will still be minicabs and they also have apps for booking these days"

Thanks

Is Green Tomato still in business? We used them quite a bit last time we were there and they were great!

How does green tomato compare to taxis in price?

We gave up on using Uber in London as the waits for a car to arrive were too long.

Thanks for that link, Emma. I checked out the apps listed. None of them got great reviews but people often don't review when service is good, so it is sort of hard to tell. We are planning only one taxi trip (if that) so might either use London Connection car service or a black cab. I may do a trial run from S. Kensington to St. Pancras one day just to see if I think sister can handle her luggage on any stairs.