Uber just lost its London taxi license

[StyM]

https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/22/...icence-denied/

In a surprise announcement today, Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed that it will not reissue Uber's private hire licence within the city. In a statement, the regulator said that the company's operations were not "fit and proper" and that has just a week (until September 30th) until its licence runs out. Uber will appeal the decision, which will allow its drivers to stay on the road until a final ruling is passed.

According to Transport for London, Uber's policies regarding the reporting of serious criminal offences, how it obtains medical certificates and performs driver checks did not meet its standards. It also noted Uber's use of its "Greyball" software, which allowed the company to evade authorities all over the world by tagging known officials and serving up dummy versions of the app that were populated with ghost cars.

"3.5 million Londoners who use our app, and more than 40,000 licensed drivers who rely on Uber to make a living, will be astounded by this decision," said Tom Elvidge, General Manager of Uber in London. "By wanting to ban our app from the capital Transport for London and the Mayor have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice. If this decision stands, it will put more than 40,000 licensed drivers out of work and deprive Londoners of a convenient and affordable form of transport."

Uber denies TfL's claim that the company utilised Greyball in London: "We have always followed TfL rules on reporting serious incidents and have a dedicated team who work closely with the Metropolitan Police. As we have already told TfL, an independent review has found that 'greyball' has never been used or considered in the UK for the purposes cited by TfL."

[adamsleath]

My experience with running a taxi service is that the additional maintenance costs associated with the additional miles on the car while providing the transport are quite significant.

The ROI for Uber drivers is very low indeed.

Taxi's are a bit of a social institution in London, its not surprising to me that they wish to regulate and protect it.

While cheaper taxi service like Uber will always be popular due to the cost to the "consumer", the Uber driver will be worse off.
And as i said, factoring in the uber driver's costs makes their incomes incredibly low. For this reason I ceased driving taxi's (and uber returns are even worse) It's an absolute pittance, and not worth my time.