Uber's Aggressive Tactics, Impacting In Private Hire Market Share....by Gerald Coba.

With Uber’s incredibly deep pockets, aggressive tactics and seemingly unstoppable growth, it’s unsurprising that we are now beginning to witness difficult times for other startups playing in the taxi and private hire vehicle booking space.

Case in point is Minicabster, a UK based minicab price comparison and booking app that raised 2 million pounds in funding since being founded in 2011. We understand that the startup entered administration last month, a voluntary process in the UK when a company has incurred debt that it is unlikely to be able to repay.

According to a regulatory filing, administrators were appointed at the end of February, charged with finding a buyer for some or all of Minicabster’s assets. And, in the last day or so, that’s exactly what appears to have happened.

It's been learned that a company called Transport Innovation, which operates a taxi freephone calling service, the type typically found placed in supermarkets which advertise minicabs as Taxis, has purchased some of the startup’s assets. It’s not clear specifically, what these entail and whether or not they include Minicabster’s user base and contracts with cab firms or just its technology.

Confirming the acquisition, Paul Murray, CEO of Transport Innovation, would say only that the company has bought the “technical assets” of Minicabster not the company itself, declining to provide any further financial details or otherwise. 

 “We are considering our strategic options,” he wrote in an email when asked why Transport Innovation has purchased some of the startup’s assets.

Minicabster’s assets sold for around £45,000 — so certainly a fire sale if we are to presume that included the startup’s customer base. I also understand that the administrators talked to just about everybody in the minicab booking space, including Taxicode, who were keen on a purchase, and Karhoo, who declined, according to sources.

Meanwhile, Minicabster company director Irshad Khan confirmed that the troubled company is in administration and that a buyer of sorts has been found. “Minicabster was part of a sale process, which completed recently,” he said in a statement, adding that the minicab market is becoming “exceedingly tough with the increased costs towards customer acquisition” and the challenges faced by minicab operators in retaining quality drivers.

I understand the latter is a direct reference to the extremely aggressive tactics and resulting growth of Uber and specifically the high rates it pays at weekends and other periods of high demand when surge pricing kicks in. I’m told that it’s not uncommon for minicab drivers to work for the types of minicab firms listed on apps like Minicabster Monday to Thursday and then to move over to Uber Friday night to Sunday where they can make a lot more cash. This creates a real problem maintaining service levels on competing taxi apps as demand outstrips supply.

Not the same but related perhaps, black taxi app Gett recently announced its intent to acquire a taxi firm of its own in the form of Radio Taxis, presumably to mitigate any future supply-side problem.

“Going forward, I see minicab operators and other minicab apps facing testing times as Uber spends more to gain market share regardless of the CPA/LTV making economical sense,” adds Khan.

Moving on, Khan has launched coach booking app CoachScanner. The coach market, of course, is one yet to be touched by Uber....give it time!

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Uber Confirm Data Received, 'Most Likely Came From TfL' : Plus AdVan Message Lost On Public.

On Tuesday 12th April, Taxi Leaks posted a letter from Sean Paul Day that accused TfL of assisting private enterprise by sharing your data.

Many people were unconvinced, saying TfL wouldn't stoop so low as to share Taxi drivers personal data with a main competitor such as Uber

In an email received today, we find Uber saying the information they received, most likely came from......TfL

Below is the email sent by help.uber.com Julie Erenst, to one of London's Gold Standard Taxi drivers

        AbVan Message, Lost On Public:

Many drivers are concerned that the message, currently being displayed on the LTDA's AdVan

Is being lost on night revellers outside the Clubs bars and restaurants in Central London 

So we've designed a posters, which we believe drives home a message, the public needs to see.

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Appeal : Cyclists Lobby Shutting Down More Of South London's Access.

Don't know if any South London cabbies are aware of this, but there's a proposal to close Dr Johnson Avenue, which runs up the middle of Tooting Common, to traffic, and to ban right turns off Tooting Bec Road on to Elmbourne Road. This will limit the number of routes traffic can use to get from Tooting to Balham. 

This has been presented as a way of "re-greening" the Common (though Dr J Ave has been there for centuries) and making the Tooting Bec Road safer.

In reality, it has been another local cycle lobby initiative: they succeeded in semi-chicaning Bedford Hill, failed to have Fishponds Road SW17 traffic-calmed in favour of pushbikes and are now having a go here. 

Last day to complete the Wandsworth Council opinion poll…

http://ift.tt/1WpVrKQ

Someone has started a 38 degrees petition – useful if only because the bike lobby last year claimed that 2000 people had signed some sort of similar thing voting to close Dr J Ave….

So please click on link below and sign the petition


http://ift.tt/1VpHpeQ

Cheers

Ann Oliver

London SW16

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Letter To The Editor : Police Harassing Taxi Drivers Queuing To Join Ranks...by Paul Sweeney.

Another day and another directive from TFL to the Metropolitan Police, to hound and hassle every Cabbie in London. 

As you are all aware, to join the rank at Paddington, you start via Harrow road roundabout junction. However, Met police are issuing tickets to cabbies who are at the process of trying to join the rank. 

Police manpower has been substantially reduced, but it seems the Met can still fine the resources to have permanent officers stationed at upper Tachbrook Street and Victoria Coach station, to stop the heinous crime of over ranking, while private hire drivers are aloud to double park in Pancras Road with impunity

This ongoing harassment of drivers has hit boiling point now. It is believed throughout the trade that TFL are behind this campaign. 

Why haven't we seen trade ranks and highways reps travelling down to the problem areas and looking into this huge problem. I am sure, If just one of them came down and spoke to the Met and started gathering evidence, it could be a huge vote winner. 

Drivers are currently being left, like Lambs to the slaughter. Why are iconic London taxi trade being victimised ?

Are any of the Orgs going to tackle this problem NOW ?

Editorial Comment :

TfL and local councils have been reducing the number of standings for Taxis by stealth over the past few decades.

Just look at the ranks that have disappeared from along Oxford Street, Regent Street, Shaftsbury Avenue.

In the late 50's there was 1 rank space for every Taxi, now it's about 65-70 Taxis to every rank space. 
Where do they expect us to go when it's quiet?

With London's air quality currently worst in Europe, surely it's beneficial to have as many vehicles as possible stationary with the engine turned off, than driving round in circles spewing out diesel fumes, looking for a space on the back of a rank.

Perhaps we should start urinating and defecating in people's gardens around Pimlico and Paddington....and they might give us large feeder parks along Vauxhall bridge Road and North Wharf Road, like they've arranged at Heathrow for Uber.

Why are we suddenly seeing this harassment from the Met, when it's perfectly clear they are turning a blind eye to the increasing amount of illegally parked PH vehicles every evening into the early hours, especially in the Mayfair and Soho areas. 
It's alleged these directives are coming directly from TfLTPH.

But as Paul mentioned in his letter, where are our rank and highways reps? 

They take our money as subs, but when was the last time you saw a rep from any org, arguing the toss with an officer, (PCO or Met) harassing drivers on a rank?

Perhaps we need to see some all trade action, in answer to TfL's unfair harassment.

If the reps can pay themselves to have all trade meetings at Heathrow, then they should also be available to look after the interests of the rank and file members out there on the street.  

If TfL and the Met want to see an amicable solution to this problem, then they need to make available more resources and embark on a program of expansion of rank spaces both new and extending existing locations. Obviously, this should be done in league with local councils and all trade representative bodies.

Please feel free to use the comment section below to suggest new ranks and extensions. 

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MP Wes Streeting's Ten Minute Bill Runs Out Of Time

Many drivers pinned there hopes on the LTDA's lobby of parliament, which resulted in a 10 minute bill from Wes Streeting, being read in the house.

The Bill asked for common sense changes which would make competition fairer and improve passenger safety. 

But unfortunately, it's not going to get the preposed second reading. Apparently the time has run out in this parliamentary session.

  

  

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Uber sends private investigator to question former employee suspected of leaking ‘rape’ searches.

The extraordinarily broad reach of Uber across the world and their questionable process for screening and hiring drivers has a lot of people worried about what the next negative PR bomb will be. 

Back in March, we heard allegations of a high number of reports of rape and sexual assault in Uber’s customer service database, with the company quickly rebutted the numbers and attempted to explain why screenshots of searches appeared to show numbers that were not grounded in real complaint cases. 

Uber said the word "Rape" had been the product of misspelling the word "Rate", although they gave no alternative misspelling from the words "Sexual Assault".

The story now takes on an added level of weirdness as reports that one former customer service employee based in Portland received an at-home visit from an “investigator from California” working on behalf of Uber, who allegedly came to her apartment to question and intimidate her and (the woman claims) entered her apartment illegally, even though she told him he was not welcome. 

Morgan Richardson, who used to work for Uber in Portland, says she had already been contacted by Uber’s legal security and law enforcement director just before the original article appeared, on March 4. 

He questioned her about leaking screenshots of rape and sexual assault searches in the company’s Zendesk customer support software, and proceeded to contact her again after the article published on March 6. 

She was informed of the leaked screenshots, from March 3, with Uber demanding she hand over any information she had and disclose to whom she had given it. 

Uber is taking the stance that Richardson, or possibly another employee or employees, were leaking private information about customers (even though the screenshots had all names redacted), saying they are “unsurprisingly concerned that sensitive, personal and confidential data has been shared with people outside Uber.” 

The official Uber statement adds, “We believe that any company in a similar situation would do exactly the same.” 

But would any company really send private investigators around to knock on former employees’ doors at 7:30 a. m. and say things like, “Do I scare you?” and “This is not going to go away you know”?

 

That’s what Richardson is alleging, via an attorney, in a cease and desist letter dated March 29. 

Further, she says, the visit from the strange man on March 25 included him knocking on her door loudly for five minutes, pressing his ear to her door, and looking inside her mailbox before she ultimately opened the door. 

Also she claims the man illegally trespassed in her apartment after she’d already refused to let him in. She says he stepped into her apartment while she was going to look for a pen. A local San Francisco news outlet asked Uber about how many current or former employees they might be similarly investigating, but Uber would not answer that on the record. 

All that the company would say is that the investigator who visited Ms. Richardson is “a seasoned, older gentleman in his 70's and at no time did he enter her home, attempt to intimidate her or even notice a mailbox.” They also say, “The investigator knocked once and the conversation lasted two minutes.” 

So let's just take stock for a moment. An aged security employee in his 70's allegedly travels/drives from California to Portland, Oregon, to have a two minute conversation with a former Uber employee!!! 

This of course is his version of the story versus hers. Uber say the investigation is ongoing, and clarify that Ms. Richardson was only a contract employee. 

“We strongly believe that we have an obligation to look into situations like this, where sensitive information is shared and we always do. Any customer service contractor who shared this type of information publicly violated multiple policies both with Uber and the third party employing them.” the company says. 

Original screenshots show 5,827 support results showing the keyword “rape” between December 2012 and August 2015.” 

Also, there appeared to be 6,160 results for “sexual assault” and 382 results for “sexually assaulted".

This of course follows on from 2014 reports of Uber exec Emil Michael claiming to have spent $1 million on “opposition researchers” to dig up dirt on and discredit a journalist who was similarly making claims regarding sexual assault risks and Uber drivers. 

Th Uber Executive bragged about an idea to spend $1 Million, to investigate certain journalists’ private lives.

Source : SFist

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2911 Private Hire Drivers Are Using EU Based Licenses Rather Than UK.

Upon the request of a Private Hire Driver member GMB made an freedom of information request based on intelligence that some drivers are using EU driving Licences to obtain licensing here.

A further allegation based on information by a private hire driver member has been made in relation to these licenses we will update when we are aware of the outcome.

As this has been received and is in the public domain we are releasing information immediately 

2.9% – of Private Hire drivers i.e. 2911 TFL Licensed Private hire Drivers in London do not hold a UK license.

We are not too sure of the insurance ramifications and will check as this may be an issue.

More to follow.

Dear Mr Garelick

TfL Ref: FOI-2464-1516

Thank you for your email which we received on 17 March 2016 asking for information about the driving licences held by licensed private hire drivers. 

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and Transport for London’s (TfL’s) information access policy and I can confirm that we do not hold the information you have requested. You asked for:

Data in relation to Private Hire Driver License’s granted using Non UK driving licenses. I would be appreciative of a country by country breakdown.

All drivers must have a UK or EEA licence. As of 24 March 2016, 97.1 % of private hire drivers are UK licence holders and 2.9% are EEA licence holders. 

Licence Type Active Private Hire Vehicle Drivers % of Total
UK 97,590 97.1%
EEA 2,911 2.9%
100,501

Source: www.gmbdrivers.org

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