from the license?-we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-license! dept.
Uber will lose its license to operate inside London. The issue may be only a temporary setback since the license expires on September 30th and Uber can continue to operate in London while appealing the decision:
London's transportation agency dealt a major blow to Uber on Friday, declining to renew the ride-hailing service's license to operate in its largest European market. [...] "Uber's approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications," the agency, Transport for London, said in a statement.
[...] In issuing its decision, Transport for London, which is responsible for the city's subways and buses as well as regulating its taxicabs, declared that Uber was not "fit and proper" to operate in the city — a designation that carries significant weight in Britain. "Fit and proper" is a benchmark applied across different sectors of business and the charitable organizations in the country to ensure that people or organizations meet the requirements of their industry or specialty. Tests typically assess factors like an individual or company's honesty, transparency and competence, though there is no formal exam. In Uber's case, Transport for London said it examined issues of how it dealt with serious criminal offenses, how it conducted background checks on drivers and its justification for a software program called Greyball that "could be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app."
Opinion: London's Uber Ban Is a Big Brexit Mistake
Related Stories
The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Thought
A year ago, before the investor lawsuits and the federal investigations, before the mass resignations, and before the connotation of the word "Uber" shifted from "world's most valuable startup" to "world's most dysfunctional," Uber's executives sat around a hotel conference room table in San Francisco, trying to convince their chief executive officer, Travis Kalanick, that the company had a major problem: him.
[...] [A] top executive excused herself to answer a phone call. A minute later, she reappeared and asked Kalanick to step into the hallway. Another executive joined them. They hunched over a laptop to watch a video that had just been posted online by Bloomberg News: grainy, black-and-white dashcam footage of Kalanick in the back seat of an UberBlack on Super Bowl weekend, heatedly arguing over fares with a driver named Fawzi Kamel. "Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit!" Kalanick can be heard yelling at Kamel. "They blame everything in their life on somebody else!"
As the clip ended, the three stood in stunned silence. Kalanick seemed to understand that his behavior required some form of contrition. According to a person who was there, he literally got down on his hands and knees and began squirming on the floor. "This is bad," he muttered. "I'm terrible." Then, contrition period over, he got up, called a board member, demanded a new PR strategy, and embarked on a yearlong starring role as the villain who gets his comeuppance in the most gripping startup drama since the dot-com bubble. It's a story that, until now, has never been fully told.
The article discusses a number of Uber and Kalanick scandals/events, including:
- The #DeleteUber movement following Uber being accused of breaking up an airport taxi strike (which was in protest of President Trump's executive order restricting travel from Muslim countries), as well as Kalanick's decision to join President Trump's business advisory council (and later leave it).
- Susan Fowler's blog post recounting sexual harassment at Uber, and the hiring of former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder to investigate the claims.
- The revelation of Uber's Greyball system, which was used to avoid picking up law enforcement and taxi inspectors.
- Uber's purchase of self-driving truck startup Otto, which eventually led key Uber investor Google (Waymo) to sue Uber, seeking billions in damages.
- Kalanick's "inexplicable" support of Anthony Levandowski, who he called his "brother from another mother", even after Levandowski stopped defending Uber in the Waymo v. Uber case.
- Kalanick's apology to the taxi driver Fawzi Kamel, which amounted to a $200,000 payoff.
- A visit to a Seoul escort-karaoke bar that resulted in an HR complaint and a report in The Information.
- Uber's president for Asia-Pacific Eric Alexander obtaining a confidential medical record of passenger who was raped by an Uber driver in Delhi, India. Alexander, Kalanick, and others discussed a theory that their Indian competitor Ola faked/orchestrated the rape.
- Kalanick making his presence known during a "leave of absence" by trying to maintain control over the company and its board.
- Arianna Huffington promoting her wellness company's products while acting as Kalanick's apparent proxy on the board.
- The new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's response to the city of London revoking Uber's operating license.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 23 2017, @11:28PM (9 children)
How long before an "underground Uber" for London emerges, with less corporate accountability than even Uber had?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Sunday September 24 2017, @12:16AM (8 children)
There is already a company that operates private hire cabs and has an app. What's the difference? It actually follows the laws.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 24 2017, @12:41AM (2 children)
If they meet the need, legally, then great. What's bad is when London makes all app based private hire cabs illegal, because they will continue to operate with or without state approval - and without state approval is much worse for everyone involved.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @12:44AM
Not for the driver.
Rape Taxi with no checkups!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Sunday September 24 2017, @01:58AM
They haven't. All they are doing is enforcing existing laws, which place some minimal requirements on minicab operations. Things like: if you get a complaint of an assault committed by a driver, you must report it to the police. Uber has failed to comply with these minimal requirements.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by zocalo on Sunday September 24 2017, @10:15AM (4 children)
In light of that, plus Uber's well documented shady operating practices, Uber's claims in response seem quite sketchy, e.g. they claim that 40,000 Uber drivers will be put out of work which seems highly unlikely; the number of people requiring rides won't decrease, so it's far more likely they'll just switch employer to one of Uber's competitors. Uber users claiming they can't afford to get around without Uber? Um, no. See above about the *many* other competing services; do your homework and add some to your contacts list. Alternatively, maybe this will push someone into developing the one tool that still seems to be missing from the ride-hire business at the moment; a meta-ride hire app that is an equivalent to all those travel sites that will scan various flight/hotel/car hire vendors and help locate the best options for you.
I also can't help wondering just how many of the names on the petition are actually legit, and how many might have been faked by hardcore Uber fans, or even Uber themselves - after Greyball, I wouldn't put it past them to think it was worth the risk of being found out. Whatever happens, I suspect there's going to be quite a bit of dirt dug (by all sides, since Uber's competitors will no doubt get involved to try and keep them out of the market) before the inevitable appeal is over, so definitely time to stock up on the popcorn.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday September 25 2017, @09:20AM (2 children)
One of the dubious practices that Uber has been panned for engaging in involves partnering with a company that offers car loans. You sign up as an Uber driver and you can buy a car with a fairly small downpayment and a large loan with very high interest rates. Don't worry, says the glossy Uber marketing, you can pay back the loan easily with the money you make as an Uber driver. Unfortunately, the income from driving is much lower than Uber advertises and the loan contract means that if you don't pay the interest then they'll confiscate the car and you'll still owe them for the depreciation. Oh, and you can't use the car for any commercial purposes other than driving for Uber, as per the terms of the loan agreement. You're basically locked in to driving for them, with no alternative other than declaring bankruptcy (and then trying to find a job with that on your record).
I don't know if this scheme operated in the UK, but I wouldn't be surprised if Uber didn't have other similar schemes to attempt to keep their drivers in indentured servitude.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday September 25 2017, @12:10PM (1 child)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday September 25 2017, @12:47PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Monday September 25 2017, @10:49PM
Apologies, this turned into rather more of a rant than intended. It is going to be a bad week.
Single source, take with a pinch of salt, etc: http://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2017/09/uber-fake-petition-busted.html [blogspot.com]
Uber are being their usual selves, i.e. trying to flannel the public and their VC backers by wailing how unjust it is that they have to follow the same laws as everyone else whilst trying to keep their efforts to legitimately resolve the issues (reporting criminal issues to the police, treating DBS disclosures as just another reference, etc) under the radar. The issue isn't that they're being singled out, rather that they're not being singled out for preferential treatment, i.e. they're being treated like every other taxi/private hire firm and that isn't fair. This kind of puerile showmanship is straight out of Barnum's playbook, yet of course the right wing press and their tame Tory gobshites are trying to position this as a Labour attack on business.
It is, if you'll pardon the expletive, fucking tiresome that every time the Tories spot an "opportunity" to lay some idiot's self-inflicted wound at Labour's feet they go for it, despite it having little to do with Labour - the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is a Labour politician, but if the stories in the more objective press are true then he had no part in this decision; technically he's TfL's "boss" but their refusal to grant a licence is hardly something cooked-up in the fairly short time since he won that election - and the other parties are hardly innocent on that score either. I would hope that a lot of other voters are tired of this partisan pissing contest - in many cases the equivalent of "a big boy did it and ran away" - and start demanding they did something bloody useful. For good or ill, the Brexit vote is being taken seriously but our government seem to have absolutely no clue what leaving the EU involves.
One small tip I'll happily give them for free is that continuing as they have done - blaming the EU for anything they absolutely can't pin on Labour and which, in the main, is utter bollocks - is not going to get us anywhere fast except on a one way trip to bankruptcy. And for pity's sake sack that idiot Johnson; sending him is the equivalent of turning up to a Western-style dual with an empty water pistol and your cock hanging out while your opponent has a cannon. Mockery and blame-shifting will only get you so far and we're well past the point where it could be considered helpful.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by dbv on Sunday September 24 2017, @01:58AM (10 children)
Probably has something to do with the price of the medallions that the cities typically issue to taxi cabs and that Uber doesn't pay. I have yet to take an Uber ride in a dirty car with a rude driver and I've taken more than a few in very different places. Disgusting taxi cabs with rude drivers are norm in my experience, regulated and all, although I've never taken one in London.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Sunday September 24 2017, @02:04AM (9 children)
Well done posting a load of drivel that has no relevance to the story.
London gives out something to black taxi drivers (those legally allowed to pick up people who hail them), but they are a license for a specific driver, they are not transferable (not even temporarily) and have to be earned through learning "the knowledge" (a black taxi cab driver needs to know the best way to get to any street, in traffic, without aids, such as maps or apps).
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:01AM (3 children)
I've read something about this (ages ago), a very difficult test to pass.
Has anyone compared the routes taken by black cab drivers to mapping/route-finding software? This seems like it could be a fun competition.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:17AM (2 children)
It's not clear to me that "the knowledge" is relevant any more, in these days of GPS navigation and real-time traffic data.
Nevertheless, it serves to limit the pool of black taxi drivers without creating a market for medallions.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Unixnut on Sunday September 24 2017, @09:30AM (1 child)
> It's not clear to me that "the knowledge" is relevant any more, in these days of GPS navigation and real-time traffic data.
GPS navigation sucks in London. I don't know if it is all the tall dense buildings on narrow roads, the trees, or what, but getting a fix is hard in London, getting a fix in central London is impossible most of the time. And this is with me on foot in an "open space" on my GPS unit. Let alone trying to get a fix from within a faraday cage like a car cabin.
I sure find myself learning routes and using an A to Z [wikipedia.org] More often than planned due to the poor GPS lock in London, so there is still a need to know routes.
I can't tell you how many times when I take a minicab, the drivers GPS unit loses lock. The driver just continues in a straight line, pretending everything is OK, and hoping that they eventually get a lock. They eventually do, and then do a big U turn because they haven't a clue where they are going. Thankfully I pay a fixed cost for the ride, otherwise I would get very upset at this, but it does make the route take longer than it should. Sometimes when they lose lock and I am in a rush, I just direct them which way to go.
You should use things like GPS as an aid, not as a replacement for knowing where you are going.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:51PM
isn't there like 40 gazillion cameras in London, and they can't be tapped into for navigational purposes?!?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @04:37AM (3 children)
So what you're saying is you have to have ten years of experience as a cab driver in London before you can become a cab driver in London. Either A) There are A LOT of unlicensed black cab drivers in London, B) Black cab drivers, since they are so scarce and have knowledge that took a large time investment to achieve, earn an average of £150,000 a year due to simple scarcity driving cost, or C) That's a load of bullshit. I tend to believe option A since heavy regulation and corruption go hand in hand.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday September 24 2017, @08:32AM
Bullshit. All you need is a scooter [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by rleigh on Sunday September 24 2017, @12:06PM
Er, no. You can drive a "private hire" vehicle. And then later learn and pass the test for driving a black cab. Both are taxis, but only the latter can pick up passengers off the street who have not pre-booked.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday September 25 2017, @09:25AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:53PM
Why are every other race locked out of this? Discrimination!