Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is Uber threatened by Boris's Proposals?
Having escaped one firing squad with today's court judgement, Uber still face the threat of Boris's new private hire proposals.
On the face of it, those proposals would appear not be in Londoners' interests, but then I haven't spent any time getting to the heart of the matter. Does anyone else know the case for and against the proposals?
In the meantime Uber have launched a petition to support their case which at the time of writing has gathered over 130,000 signatures.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Experienced the Uber service first time on Wednesday evening - friend used them. Excellent experience. They know exactly where you're standing if outside on the pavement for example, which we were. The car arrived there within a few minutes. Knew name of driver and type of car before he arrived. The driver was courteous, knew where he was going, smooth ride and car itself was good. All very impressive.
Black Cabs in the past have been reluctant to go out as far as Harringay & are expensive & not particularly easy to arrange/find. At a recent meeting where the Black Cab drivers were outside protesting Boris was heard referring to them as 'luddites'. Probably a little harsh but monopolies/oligopolies like this are being disrupted like this by new ways/new tech all over the world in many lines of work. Maybe the Black Cabs should create their own app if they haven't already and lower their prices.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I made the mistake of getting a black cab home from Heathrow after a rather exhausting flight from Australia many years ago. I had £50 on me but we had to ask him to stop at an ATM in Camden Town and he didn't bat an eyelid. It's their ridiculous desire to be paid in cash when everyone else uses debit cards that means I don't use them and they're labelled luddites. I used Hailo a bit when it had lots of Black Cab drivers on it and you could get them around Harringay, it was also handy to have on my daughter's phone linked to my debit card.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I think that the domination of the market by black cabs has been artificially overextended for a long time. But I do think that private hire vehicles should be subject to the same checks as those for Hackney carriages. After all, we're stepping into a car driven by a complete stranger. I would like to know that they have to at least be subject to a check for previous criminal convictions that could put a passenger at risk.
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I've been in a lot of very good private hire cars and some that frankly scared the whatever out of me, including one that I told to just stop and let me out. For the private hire world to be up to the standard of black cabs, and I do think black cab drivers on the whole are very good, may actually end up costing us a bit more but I for one would be willing to pay that.
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No, the sentence says that private hire cars may cost a bit more if they had vehicles and drivers regulated to bring them up to the standards for black cabs.
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Permalink Reply by Wellington Barreto on
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And of course we need the government to protect us from making a bad decision.
Instead of more regulation and license requirements, there should be options. If you want to save money and are willing to take some risk, you should be allowed whatever option you like.
More licenses, requirements and regulation do not protect anyone's interest but those who are part of the cartel, creating roadblocks for competition. And we all know that, without competition, the quality of goods and services go as low as possible and the price the other way around.
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I think that there are some basics we should expect when stepping into a car for hire, don't you? I'd can't see how demanding that the firm I hire from carries out checks of its drivers and their vehicles is going to stifle competition.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Whilst I'm a fan of freedom of choice, there's also the issue that when things go wrong, it won't just be the individual who took the risk that pays the the price.
Imagine the cost to us all of an unregulated cab service - the price for the family into whose car the unregulated driver ploughs, the cost to the health service who have to look after the passenger assaulted by a rogue driver, the cost of a rise in car insurance premiums as they rise in response to accidents caused by unregulated drivers, etc etc
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That's the reason why I am completely against government services.
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So you don't use any of them?
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The least I can, even if I've already paid for them.
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I notice the media spin against Uber, eg yesterday's papers 'passenger raped by Uber driver' ie by a mini cab driver......London Black Cabs have been robbing people for years and are only used by politicians and business people on expenses, rich tourists etc.If you can afford a Black Cab out of your own pocket you are doing well. Mini Cab drivers work their backsides off for a pittance and cannot hail and ride like BCs. Not quite sure why London mini cabs aren't up to the standards of other cities in the UK and Europe which have to display signage and drivers' id inside the cab. All ours have is a blue sticker in the back window which seems just for bus lanes and any fool could print one off.......
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