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LONDON TAXI DRIVERS brought central London to a standstill today in a protest over Uber and changing taxi regulations.
Organisers said that around 8,000 drivers took part in today’s protest at Whitehall in Westminster.
Black-cab drivers say they are concerned with what they describe as ‘unfair competition’ from services such as Uber.
Tom Elvidge, the general manager of Uber in London, said: “This protest was sparked when Transport for London dropped plans for bureaucratic new rules on licensed private hire drivers, such as five-minute minimum waiting times.
But Londoners made clear they didn’t want to be slowed down, with more than 200,000 opposing those proposals.
These were the scenes that transpired from today’s protest.
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Rip off black cabs with miserable drivers. Haven’t used them in 10 years. Uber is a great cheaper service.
It’s cheaper because they don’t pay any employee protection, licences to support regulation and have little capital outlaw so the driver carries the capital/depreciation burden
Black cab drivers study for years to pass the ‘knowledge’ and if anything was to go wrong you would be fully insured unlike Uber.
Sat nav has seriously devalued the ‘knowledge’ and changed the economics of the business.
If you can’t adapt to the modern consumer you can’t expect to stay in business!
Unless the market is regulated, then you can fully expect it!
I worked the base and radio years back as a kid in various Taxi and Hackney companies. The taxi drivers used to love sharing their schemes and scams they got up to fiddling and overcharging the unsuspecting public. Don’t get me wrong there were of course some decent drivers among them. Others attempted to ingratiate me into occasional lifts in order to facilitate lucrative ‘airport jobs’ etc. I know some staff fell for it. Many drivers hated account runs as they were traceable for paying tax. There were lads that signed on as well. Some drivers owned several plates at £80,000+ making a fortune renting them out. There were a few that moaned about alleged uninsured hackneys. Ironic that a couple of these same whingers would often take lunch breaks in the pub. I’m glad these days are behind us. Hailo, Uber etc and making taxi plate affordable and more numerous are progressive choices.
Keith You’re very critical of your driver friends.You seem to forget that without them you wouldn’t have had a job in the base.
Les I was employed by the various taxi and hackney business owners over the years because I was good at my job. Various drivers also appreciated me because I could rapidly and politely take hundreds of customer phone calls often alone as well as being an efficient dispatcher on busy shifts. I knew the maps like the back of my hand. I’ve had various careers before and since. Not all of them was I nearly as talented as in that area. However ultimately I was fair and treated them all the same even the bad ones! Ironic that it was me that allocated them work diplomatically in a non corrupt manner. The good jobs were evenly distributed. My earlier comments were not directed at you personally Les even if you are a taxi driver.
Apps like hailo are making the taxi radio companies redundant and putting more money in taxi drivers pockets
Keith, its clear you have an axe to grind with taxi drivers. Something must have happened while you were in the industry to make you so critical. Because you seem to be praising yourself on how good you were on the job.Sour grapes?
Yes lots of things happened “in the industry” Gerry as pointed out in my first post. No axe to grind nor sour grapes. Just stating facts.
Keith everybody knows the dispatcher was on the take from the drivers to give them good jobs….. Are you saying you weren’t……. Pull the other one there’s bells on it …
Now thats how you protest… “”" Taxi”"”"
I guess they could of held up a city because they wanted a 52% pay raise to 60+ grand a year….
Never a taxi around when you need one ! Fair play to them though
Try using Hailo it’s an excellent service and very reliable
The Black cab tour of Belfast wouldn’t be the same!
Same here in Canada, Toronto, Taxi drivers never cared about the public. Now they ‘suddenly’ worry for your safety….. Scùmbags. Last year, a taxi driver turned down a girl because it was a short trip, she ended up being hit by a stray bullet and died. Few weeks later, they are protesting Uber, holding signs about public safety…. Let them go out of business…..
Are you suggesting that the taxi driver is somehow responsible for her being shot?
And very expensive Seamus.
UBER have taken the livelihood from decent licenced taxi drivers all around the world. They have been banned in Germany India and are under a lot of scrutiny in countries all over the world. Their business model allows for non licensed drivers to operate a taxi service. They accept no liability for the behaviour of their unlicensed driver’s as they say that any agreement is only between the driver and passanger. They still take a percentage of the fare. Anyone using this type of supposedly cheap form of transport should be very aware of the pitfalls of the service. Ensuring that the driver and vehicle are properly insured and to cover mishaps and problems encountered on a journey. You get what you pay for
But you are sure every taxi driver is the licensed driver, and not someones family friend earning a few bob?
How can you protest against a free market?
It clearly states in my insurance documents that I am not insured for hire or reward, how are the Uber drivers covered.
Just wait ok, until someone is seriously assaulted at 3am by a “stranger”, who might have been drinking earlier and comes out of his house to drive you home! Dont say that you weren’t warned.!! Uber My Arse!.proper registered Taxi Drivers are your safest bet.
That is not why these drivers are striking. Uber is the best chance to happen to the taxi industry for decades. It should be regulated correctly and then let competition happen!
Excuse me noel, its very much part of the reason they are striking.what about their insurance detail,”for hire or reward”?..What about police vetting? Criminal records, etc etc.The amount that taxi drivers pay out every year is very high.Also, will they be able to provide a Tax clearance cert every year?. Will they pay for a special nct test too?. I dont think so Noel.
If carlsberg did taxi’s
The same thing happened to my daughter on new year eve at 4 in the morning she and her friends stopped a taxi and were getting in and the driver asked where they were going and she told him he turned around and said that only a short drive im not taking yous so he just left the girls on the side of the road near the airport he wanted a fare into town .
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