Another Day, Another European Country Ban Uber Pop.

Another day, another European country bans Uber Pop. This time it’s Sweden that has called time on the company’s ridesharing service.

According to Fortune Magazine:

A March 23 decision by an appeals court in Stockholm upheld one of several rulings in lower courts that UberPOP drivers were breaking the law by driving without taxi permits.

Uber said it hoped it could relaunch the service soon. Its final UberPOP offerings in Stockholm and Gothenburg will run on May 18.

If you’re keeping track, that makes Uber Pop banned in France, Germany, Spain and… well… pretty much everywhere else in Western Europe. A source close to the company recently said, "at this point, Uber's strongest European markets are London and Estonia."

WANT TO BE AMAZED ? 

Then check out  >this Wikipedia page<. 

It lists all the places where Uber has been banned or otherwise attacked by regulators. The list is massive.

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Another Day, Another European Country Ban Ûber Pop

Another day, another European country bans Uber Pop. This time it’s Sweden that has called time on the company’s ridesharing service.

According to Fortune:

“Our pilot has successfully tested ridesharing in Sweden, however clearer regulation is needed before it can be taken further,” Alok Alstrom, general manager for Uber in Sweden, said in a statement.

A March 23 decision by an appeals court in Stockholm upheld one of several rulings in lower courts that UberPOP drivers were breaking the law by driving without taxi permits.

Uber said it hoped it could relaunch the service soon. Its final UberPOP offerings in Stockholm and Gothenburg will run on May 18.

If you’re keeping track, that leaves Uber Pop banned in France, Germany, Spain and… well… pretty much everywhere else in Western Europe. As one source close to the company told me recently, "at this point, Uber's strongest European markets are London and Estonia."

In fact, I just discovered this slightly amazing Wikipedia page listing all the places where Uber has been banned or otherwise attacked by regulators. Take a look at the index…

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Letter To Taxi Leaks : We Must Keep The Ball Rolling....by Tom Scullion

A plea to the London Taxi drivers and supporters.

 We need to get the message out there, we have over  5,000 drivers who have signed the vote of no confidence in Leon Daniels, this is a great start but it still only represents 20% of London's Black cab drivers! 

The last thing we want to hear is the new mayor saying to us that only a small number of drivers are unhappy with Leon Daniels! 

Please, please encourage all Black cab drivers you know to sign this form, all it requires is a name and badge number to validate the vote, if you know a driver that doesn't use social media or doesn't have access to a computer simply get their permission and fill in the form for them! 

It is extremely important that we remove Leon Daniels from his highly paid position as Director of surface transport, as this man has personally overseen the demise of the best taxi service in the world! 

Well here's our chance to kick him where it hurts, let's put pressure on Sadiq Khan and let him know we have had enough! 

Please click on the link below and keep the ball rolling! 

>Click Here To Vote<

If ever Org, manufacture, and trade associated business's including the radio circuits, Apps, livery company's etc. could share the link above via SMS, email or in print on drivers statements, or the trade press, this would broadcast our intent to bring the wrong doers to book.

Tfl saw our failed efforts to take them to task on the Judicial review as a sign of weakness and disharmony within our trade, now we know the truth that Tfl conspired and colluded with several PHV companies, with the sole intention of killing off the London's trades exclusive right to ply for hire. 

It's time to fight back, 30 seconds of your time can and will make the difference.

Be lucky 

Tom Scullion

Time is running out for those who have acted against the Interests of the Taxi trade.

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The Fall Of The Hackney Carriage Empire.... By Jim Thomas

Over the last 12 months there has been a significant amount of Chinese whispers surgically placed on all forms of social media. Multiple fake accounts on Twitter have launched into smear campaigns to discredit those strong of character who stood up against the so called big boys.

Rumour, of a possible coming together of the tribal chiefs, eluding to the strong possibility of full trade unity, is currently flavour of the day.

For many years the trade has been decimated by empire building individuals, who have built themselves ivory towers, while at the same time offering little to the trade in return.

The trade is in such a disastrous state that drivers are now desperate for any form of action which could possibly put the trade back on track, after being pushed off the rails by a certain newcomer to the market place.

But is full trade unity, truly the answer ?

Let's look back in history at one of the most successful unions of all time, democratic and seemingly invincible, the Roman Empire stood solid for almost two millennia. Being a Roman citizen was not forced upon the populous, you could be born a Roman, you could work to achieve citizenship, or you could win your freedom by fight or favour....or you could carry on being a slave.

But in 212 AD all that changed when emperor Caracalla went against the senate and decided to make everyone living within the confines of the empire a Roman citizen. Suddenly there was an extra 30 million citizens almost overnight. Needless to say, when all became equal, they soon found new ways to divide and "exclude", sounds familiar !

Within a mere couple of centuries, we witnessed the fall of the Great Roman Empire.

So what have we learned from history ?

Having made the same mistakes over and over again....probably nothing !

If all trade orgs were suddenly made equal, would certain orgs strive to become more equal than others?

Our trade representation appears to be all over the place. 

In the news;

 • The UCG are raising money for a plan B

 • The LTDA are about to announce a plan B (anyone remember plan A)

 • The LCDC are concerntrating on the Ubergate emails

 • The RMT appear to be still working on their singular plan A       

 • Unite, for no apparent reason, seem to have left the field of play all together.

Looking back over the our colourful 350 years of history, we've never seen true trade unity. Even when there was only one union, we still managed to form little rebellious groups which exclude others. Even with all the division, we're still in the ring punching above our weight....for now !

Left to their own devices, it looks like our orgs will never make the move to total unity, so it falls on our shoulders to clear the shelves of old stock and deadwood. We need to stop letting dinosaurs, who should have retired long ago, drag us down by woeful misrepresentation.

Perhaps the time has come for an umbrella group.

A pseudo Senate, who could make policy and negotiate with our licensing authority on behalf of the whole trade, not just a proportion of, without third party influence, or conflict of interests.

Because let's face it, what we have now....isn't working.

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Angry Bristol cabbies are threatening to bring streets to halt in Uber protest.

TAXI drivers who claim that the rise of online firm Uber is putting the trade at risk are now threatening to bring the streets of Bristol to a standstill with a massive demonstration.

A delegation of London cabbies came to Bristol last week to talk to the city's drivers about the rising influence of the internet firm on the trade.

The United Cabbies Group as thousands of members across the country and recently organised a demonstration which saw the streets of the capital bought to a complete standstill.

Around 8,000 cab drivers caused traffic chaos when they blockaded the streets around Westminster and the West End lost month.

The group already has members in most other major cities including Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester and they are looking to recruit in Bristol.

And they have promised to stage a demonstration if their concerns about Uber are not addressed.

Spokesman and organiser Len Martin said: "We would be very keen to talk to the new mayor of Bristol about our concerns.

"If he or she is not willing to speak to us then we would be more than ready to organise the kind of demonstration that we held in London. "We had about 8,000 cab drivers turn out in central London and we are more than confident that we could get at least 1,000 drivers into Bristol.

"We are very serious about this because we believe that this company poses a real threat to the taxi trade."

The association claims that there are currently around 200 Uber drivers operating in Bristol and about 70 to 80 per cent of them come from outside the city.

Transport for London, which licenses taxis in the capital, said a 'grey area' could make it easier for cabbies based in the capital to take jobs in Bristol.

Under the current rules only Hackney Cabs can be hailed in the street while private hire cars have to be booked. The Uber app means that people can get a private hire car easier than ever before and know how much the journey will cost them.

Unite, the union that represents many black-cab drivers, is backing the campaign and claims the government is biased against their trade.

Tim Lloyd, a taxi driver based in Bristol, said: "It does feel that as a trade we are being short-changed by the government."But this is not just about the drivers it is also about customer safety.

"The drivers are coming to Bristol from all over the country and they are not subject to the same level of checks."The drivers can get a licence within a matter of weeks with a much lower level of background checks and they do not have to take the same level of tests."

Under the current regulations private hire drivers are able to start or end a trip anywhere in the UK as long as their private hire licence and vehicle licence match the licensed operator that processes their booking.

A spokesman for Uber said the firm did not want to comment on the criticisms and proposed demonstration.He added: "There is no difference between Uber and other drivers.

"All our drivers are checked and have to be licensed."We operate under the same conditions and the same rules as the rest of the industry."

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Janet Street Porter Says : Cyclists Have Turned London's Democracy, Into A Dictatorship.

The wonderful city of London was once a pleasure to walk through, but it's recently been 'brought to its knees by cycling' claims Janet Street a Porter, in her film on the arrival of more segregated cycle lanes.

Cyclists get to breeze around the our city with little regard to anyone else, subject to virtually no laws governing their behaviour, with most cyclists ignoring the few laws they have.

Janet asks the question:

Why should cyclists get preferential treatment over the rest of us. 

What about pedestrians, the old, the very young, the disabled, people who may not want to or be able to cycle...don't they have rights.

Cycling in London is subject to few rules, whether it's obeying red lights or keeping off the pavement. 

And even when these cycling lanes are finally finished, cyclists won't have to use them, they can still take their chances on the open highways with the rest of us! 

Janet goes on to say she thought we lived in a democracy, but it seems cyclists have more clout than any one else. 

Isn't it about time the rest of us stood up for our rights and informed the cyclists that our roads are also for cars, lorries, buses and Taxis. 

Janet believes cyclists won't be happy till all other forms of transport are irradiated. 

 

>Click Here To See Janets Short Film.com<

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Uber accused of illegally influencing effort to reduce background checks.

Uber is at the center lawsuit filed in a federal court in Austin, Texas, that alleges the company sent unsolicited automatic text messages to customers to drum up support for a ballot measure that would ease background checks for rideshare drivers.

The lawsuit filed in the US Court of the Western District claims that Uber violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by “robo-texting thousands of unwanted text messages to the cellphones of thousands” of Austin customers, without their express consent. 

Under the TCPA, the lawsuit explains, it is unlawful for companies or individuals to call or send text messages using an “artificial or prerecorded voice” to cellular phones - with the exception of emergencies or the caller received the recipient’s consent. 

Both major transportation network companies - Uber and Lyft - have been vocal in their support for Proposition 1, a referendum that would eliminate the requirement for rideshare drivers to include fingerprinting in their background checks. But Uber has overstepped, according to recipients of the alleged text messages. 

Lawyers for Melissa Cubria, an Austin-area activist who filed the class-action suit, argue that Uber violated their customers’ privacy by using their phone numbers to send messages for political purposes. 

“[I]t is absurd to imagine that Uber paid individual, living persons to manually type and then manually send thousands (and perhaps tens of thousands) of individual text messages in support of a political campaign underway,” the lawsuit says.

The court filing includes numerous screen captures of text messages allegedly sent to Uber customers in Austin that, it is claimed, show duplicate messages sent to various users, where the only difference is the sender’s name. When recipients respond with “STOP” or criticism of the tactics, that generated an apparent auto-response that did not acknowledge the previous message, it is alleged.

The text messages have “strong indicia of being generated not as part what would be an incredibly complex and tedious live, manually-dialed/manually texted political outreach effort,” the suit reads, “but rather as part of a robo-texting effort using auto-dial technology by Uber or third parties working at Uber’s direction to boost the prospects for passage of Prop 1.”

Images of text messages allegedly sent by Uber included in the lawsuit filing

Residents of the Texas capital will decide on whether or not to ride alongside ridesharing companies, or side with the city in a 7 May special election on Prop 1. In the push to win Austin’s favour, Uber and Lyft reportedly spent $8.1m (£5.6m) campaigning for the measure through the PAC Ridesharing Works for Austin, according to campaign finance reports released 29 April - although some estimate that figure to be higher. 

“Uber and Lyft’s $8.8m (£6.1) and growing in corporate spending as of Tuesday is a testament to how far these corporations are willing to go to rule Austin and overturn Austin’s public safety rules,” former Austin City Council member Laura Morrison said, adding that the amount of money spent on this campaign is “unprecedented”.

Ms Morrison is the spokesperson for the PAC that opposes Prop 1, Our City Our Safety Our Choice (OCOSOC), and called on the county district attorney to look into the practises of the companies, saying, "[W]e are calling for a broad investigation of Uber and Lyft’s actions to determine if they have stepped over the line from grossly inappropriate to illegality.” 

The OCOSOC site claims that should Prop 1 pass, it would set an ill precedent for corporations to do as they please. 

“If Uber succeeds with [Prop 1],” the website reads, “then other corporations may seek to overturn city rules on safe housing construction, worker safety, building limits in floodplains, clean water standards, neighborhood zoning, and a host of other public safety protections.”

Uber maintained that the company has acted lawfully, and accuses Prop 1 opponents of trying to influence the outcome of Saturday’s vote.

“We have taken great precaution to comply with applicable laws and believe the claims in this lawsuit are meritless,” the company said in a statement to KVUE. 

“The announcement of this action at an anti-Prop 1 press conference also reveals how it was designed to unduly influence the election.”

The Austin City Council put into place regulations that required rideshare drivers undergo fingerprint based background checks, identical to those required of taxi and limo drivers in the state. 

Ridesharing Works for Austin launched a petition drive and gathered more than 20,000 signatures, successfully calling for the special election to repeal the ordinance.

Both Uber and Lyft have threatened to leave the city if the measure fails. 

Representatives from Uber did not immediately respond to request for comment

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