Sunday Times Full Article : Uber drivers forced to have new criminal record check

The vetting process for thousands of drivers offering the under-fire service in London has been declared invalid

By Andrew Gilligan

 

September 3 2017, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Is Uber in trouble?

 

Thousands of Uber drivers are to be made to undergo new criminal record checks after regulators rejected the vetting process used by the cab-hailing giant.

 

Transport for London (TfL), which licenses taxis in the capital, is writing to at least 13,000 minicab drivers — more than a tenth of the total — telling them their background checks are no longer valid. The drivers will be given 28 days to make new applications for vetting or be taken off the road, TfL said. They work for several companies but the largest number are Uber drivers.

 

The move comes after The Sunday Times revealed that police had accused Uber of failing to report sex attacks on passengers by its drivers and of “allowing situations to develop that clearly affect the safety and security of the public”.

 

Last week it emerged the man charged with the Buckingham Palace terror attack is an Uber driver. Mohiussunnath Chowdhury allegedly attacked three police officers with a samurai sword while shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is great).

 

In December 2015 a former Uber driver, Muhiddin Mire, tried to behead a stranger in a London Tube station, yelling: “This is for my Syrian brothers.”

 

Steve Garelick, of the private-hire drivers’ branch of the GMB union, said Uber had put the incomes of drivers at risk by using an inadequate vetting process.

 

“Because of this, there is a chance that some drivers have slipped through the net who will bring a bad name to all the others,” he said. “That is contemptible.”

 

All would-be minicab drivers in London must be checked against information held by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), a government agency, for criminal records, unsuitability to work with children or police warnings.

 

Uber worked with a London-based company called Onfido to carry out the checks. Uber referred drivers to Onfido, which would check with the DBS and then issue TfL with a certificate stating the facts about the driver’s background. Onfido describes Uber as a “client”.

 

TfL accepted these certificates until this year. However, it said this weekend that “following a recent review of policy” it would no longer accept them from Onfido or any other “third-party provider” but only its own contractor. TfL declined to describe its concerns about Onfido and other providers.

 

Onfido denied any deficiencies in its vetting process and said TfL simply wanted to maintain an exclusive contract with its own provider, GBGroup. “The only concern expressed to us is about the exclusivity of the contract,” it said.

 

Uber said it did not itself carry out or process any background checks. “Uber does not require potential drivers to use a specific provider and does not have a say in who gets licensed,” it said. “It is ultimately up to the regulator to review the application and DBS check and decide who is granted a licence.”

 

Uber’s licence to operate in London, originally issued for five years, was renewed in May for only four months after Inspector Neil Billany, head of the Metropolitan police’s taxi unit, expressed “significant concern” that the company seemed to be “deciding what [crimes] to report”, telling police only about “less serious matters” that would be “less damaging to [its] reputation”. Its licence expires at the end of this month.

 

Billany said Uber had failed to report at least six sexual assaults on passengers carried out by its drivers. One attacker was able to molest a second female passenger before being taken off the road. Uber said it was up to individuals to decide whether to report such incidents.

 

Uber is trying to stabilise under a new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, after boardroom battles, allegations of sexual harassment, invasion of privacy and bribery, and the forced resignation of co-founder Travis Kalanick.

 

Caroline Pidgeon, deputy chairwoman of the London assembly’s transport committee, said: “The questions for Uber keep piling up. Its licence should not be even considered for renewal until strict employment and road safety conditions are firmly in place to ensure it behaves like a responsible company.”

 

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21 comments

 

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SJR2020 12 minutes ago

 

Read through this very carefully.

 

TFL, the regulator in this case, has previously accepted and approved the vetting information for all Uber drivers (and others) they refer to and allowed them to work as private hire drivers.

 

TFL has now changed the goal posts to restrict the vetting process to one company (I'm not certain this is strictly legal unless a tender for the work has been offered and subsequently won?).

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Alan Harris 32 minutes ago

 

What about checking that they speak and understand English?

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colin james 46 minutes ago

 

Forced ...what rubbish it should be compulsory from the start.

.

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Odin 1 hour ago

 

Just wait for Corbyn,Shami and Abbott  to declare this is an anti Muslim plot.

2RecommendReply

Pam Nash 1 hour ago

 

Uber drivers are a totally unknown, and VERY loosely regulated, body.

 

I've never used Uber, I never will - in London I use black cabs, who are tightly regulated and also actually know where they're going, or the Tube.

4RecommendReply

Mrs Miggins 22 minutes ago

 

And sadly they are harder to find on the apps (Gett, Hailo) as Uber prices them out. Uber costs are nothing, with none of the tests and requirements of black cabs and of course none of the U.K. taxes, and it's about time this was evened out. You are always safe in a black cab, no matter how pissed or how late. We can't lose them.

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SJR2020 10 minutes ago

 

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Man on the Street 2 hours ago

 

" Thousands of Uber drivers are to be made to undergo new criminal record checks after regulators rejected the vetting process used by the cab-hailing giant."

 

This is an action that is welcome, better late than never. 

 

This is a refreshing step though the length of contact between the driver and his custome is short.  

 

In contrast, the Sunday Times reports elsewhere that Mr Lammy, MP is proposing that information convictions ought to be withheld from the employers, though the duration of contact beween the past convict and his employer is potential very long.

3RecommendReply

dizzle 3 hours ago

 

My daughter has an Uber account to get home late at night. I have, for some time, been worried about her safety. Can anyone reassure me or should I be right to be worried and should she use a local company ?

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Adrian Haberberg 2 hours ago

 

@dizzle According to the (ex-Uber) driver who brought me home from Gatwick last night, the most worrying aspect of Uber is the long hours that drivers need to work in order to make a living. He talked of colleagues working shifts well in excess of 12 hours. I would not want to be driven by one who was that fatigued.

3RecommendReply

B Marchant 2 hours ago

 

As long as there is at least one other person with her, she should be fine. I never use Uber without another person with me. Nothing has happened to me but several friends have been harassed by drivers.

2RecommendReply

Mrs Miggins 17 minutes ago

 

You should get her a Gett account, with Hailo for backup. Black cabs, but their prices are often less than Uber, they don't do 'surge' pricing, and they give you the price before you start. For long journeys the Addison lee app has the best prices, and is also 100% safe.

 

It always surprises me when parents think an Uber account for their young daughter is a good idea. No criminal checks and Muslm make drivers who could do anything then disappear into the ether. And a often very pissed young girl on her own. Hm.

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Matthew Sellers 3 hours ago

 

By all means have a level playing field but this smells like a back door attempt to hurt Uber

Flag

1RecommendReply

Ramtops 1 hour ago

 

@Matthew Sellers 

Uber have proved to be quite capable of hurting themselves.

1RecommendReply

s tan 3 hours ago

 

On my recent return to London, I reluctantly got an Uber as I am not a fan of their business model, lack of knowledge of London's complex streets, the increased  congestion they have brought on main roads and the behaviour and its attitude of its founder. I jumped in at Pimlico going up to Mornington Cresecent. For some reason, the driver's telephone and sat nav expired on Elizabeth Street near Victoria Coach Station. What happened next left me staggered - the driver asked me to get out and book another ride for two reasons - (1) he couldn't be sure whether he would be paid and (2) he was unsure how to get to the Camden High Road from Hyde Park Corner.

 

 

A quick check of my Pay Pal confirmed that the £16.00 odd had been taken by Uber.  He then begrudgingly agreed to take me to my destination with me guiding him from my own knowledge of Zone 1 and also with my Google Maps activated. He couldn't tell me whether Camden was North or South relative to our location.

 

 

These drivers spend all the time watching their sat navs and not the roads and other road users as they just have no idea where they are without them. The fact that the they are not undergoing  rigorous enough criminal record checks suggests to me that they the previous Johnson City Hall administration was cavalier in its approach to passenger safety by granting tens of thousands of licenses to a company that somehow seems to have been given favoured status treatment and a blind eye approach from TFL.

17RecommendReply

Donald Stickland 2 hours ago

 

@s tan   ... and so: 

 

 

B R A V O  ...  Inspector Neil Billany, head of the Metropolitan police’s taxi unit, who  The Sunday Times  today tells  ToL ...  said Uber had failed to report at least six sexual assaults on passengers carried out by its drivers.     One attacker was able to molest a second female passenger before being taken off the road.     Uber said it was up to individuals to decide whether to report such incidents.

Flag

2RecommendReply

TT 20 3 hours ago

 

In my entire life I have never come across a "cab hailing giant". 

 

Anybody have a picture of this phenomena they could share with us?

Flag

1RecommendReply

BrexITman 10 hours ago

 

How about simply searching their cars at random to see if they have any 4 foot long samurai swords in the front passenger footwell?!

3RecommendReply

Donald Stickland 2 hours ago

 

@BrexITman ... well, BIT - that'll keep you busy ... and perhaps off ToL ?

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Letters To The Editor : Sean Paul Day : Heads up folks, we will need to refocus.

Before we start talking about:

• Whether the signs at the O2 are lawful or not...

•  whether Taxify can legally use the name or not....

• Whether the number of PH drivers should be capped or not...

•Whether Uber's working model deems them employers or not...

•Whether they should have a landline or not...

•Whether they should have their operators license revoked or not...

Before we concern ourselves with any of the above, do not forget 

Uber's operation is illegal !

LETS NOT GET DISTRACTED!

Any talk about how their operation can be contained only serves to legitimise their modus operandi.

Should the trade issue a statement that we no longer recognise Mike Brown as regulator of the licensed taxi trade.

If Uber are continually circumventing the law, and if TFL have failed - with intent- in their duty to enforce laws parliament have deemed fit to keep in place, then why are we doing things by the book. 

I believe we are afforded a unique opportunity, albeit finite, to organise ourselves outside of the usual prescribed parameters of doing things. 

In the first instance, The trade should issue a statement that we no longer recognise Mike Brown as regulator or arbiter of the licensed taxi trade.

He is an appointed official therefore is operating without advocacy, and we cannot align ourselves with a regulator that does not work in the interests of the trade. He has overseen the utter decimation to the potential earnings of sole traders who are forced to meet the inflated running costs of a TFL authorised vehicle. 

The well-being of the licensed taxi industry is synonymous with the well-being and safety of the travelling public, he has therefore, unequivocally, failed on both accounts. 

But most of all, the tried and tested formulas of dealing with Trade disputes, or changes to prevailing standards, no longer apply. 

Silicone Valley has changed the rules entirely. 

Effectively, an off shore company has walked in to Britain and been allowed to run roughshod through UK legislation. By allowing them to operate, TfL has set a precedent that big dollar corporations can dictate UK policy. No one, no matter what industry you are in, should welcome that, and it's crucial to convey the magnitude of that to the public. 

The only way I can see it working is if we are a bigger disrupter than the disruptors. 

I believe if we could galvanise support from rank and file drivers and bring London's economy to a grinding halt, every day for a week, or even more, we could then call the shots and Uber's operation will either be shut down or tailored to our terms. 

Furthermore, it will also deem us as a mighty force to be reckoned with and will discourage future 'viral' infiltrations into the trade.

But we need the numbers, and we need the impetus! 

Ask the powerful these five questions:

1) What power have you got? 

2) Where did you get it from? 

3) In whose interests do you exercise it? 

4) To whom are you accountable? 

5) And how can we get rid of you?” 

If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

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T BLISS. IT’S BLOODY WORRYING! IS THIS THE HIGHLY TRAINED STAFF, MAYOR KHAN PROMISED

LPHCA statement on Uber Private Hire Operator License Renewal

The Licensed Private Hire Car Association welcomes the London Assembly unanimous call of 6th July 2017 for Transport for London not to renew Uber’s private hire operator licence.  We wholly support this motion. 

Like many interested groups, as reportedly stated by Mr Kurten AM at the Plenary Session, we have long expressed apprehensions about the poor practices of this business and its structure.  

Over the past few months our concerns have been strengthened by numerous publicly reported events.  These include:

1. Investigation into correspondence between Uber and the Prime Minister’s Office by the Information Commissioners Office on 13th April 2017.
2. Competition reduction, attributed to Uber, within the market found by the accountancy firm Moore Stephens on 24th July 2017.
3. Allegations of passenger fare exploitation by Uber drivers found by Warwick Business School and New York University on 2nd August 2017.
4. Criticism for failing to report serious crimes, including sexual assault, by Uber drivers from the Metropolitan Police on 13th August 2017.

Further to the above, Uber has been subject to ongoing questions about its working practices, driver engagement and payment of tax.  Uber drivers have also been successfully prosecuted by Transport for London for carrying passengers without proper insurance.  

This followed a complaint, from a Licensed Private Hire Car Association member, that one of their vehicles was being used uninsured by a driver for Uber work.  The lack of robust documentary checks raised additional consternation as to regulatory compliance.

Transport for London also successfully prosecuted Uber London Limited on the charge of Causing or permitting a person to use a motor vehicle on a road (or other public place) without a policy of insurance.

Modernisation of transport services is, we accept, a necessary progressive step but it should not risk public safety or the reputation of the wider licensed private hire trade.  

In adding our support to the London Assembly motion, the Licensed Private Hire Car Association calls for Transport for London not to renew Uber’s private hire operator licence on 30th September 2017. 

[ends]

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The Result Of TfL Licensing Uber Drivers, With Fake Topographical Test Results, Fake Medicals and Fake DBS Checks

Well, as they say....you couldn't make it up. 

Buckingham Palace Samurai sword waving terrorist Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, decided to unleash his own brand of terror at the Royal residence of Windsor Castle. 

But as he had no topographical knowledge of Central London -where he was licensed by TfL to work as an Uber driver- he entered Windsor castle into his Uber sat-nav. But like many Uber journeys undertaken by drivers with absolutely no knowledge of London, he ended up at the wrong destination, many miles away from where he had intended to go. 

Instead of arriving at the Royal residence of Windsor Castle, he actually arrived at a London Pub of the same name. 

Below is the court report from the Guardian, it reads like the script to a sit-com. 

It is alleged that Chowdhury, 26, who works as a self-employed Uber driver, had set off from his Luton address about two hours before his arrest and he used his satnav to try to drive to Windsor Castle. After he arrived at a pub of the same name, he drove on and eventually ended up near Buckingham Palace in central London.

He is alleged to have then driven towards a marked police car in a blue Toyota Prius at just after 8.30pm on Friday and stopped. During the incident, he was sprayed by police with CS gas and arrested.

Chowdhury, who wore a grey tracksuit and spoke to confirm his name and address, was remanded in custody. He will next appear at the Old Bailey on 21 September.

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Uber Execs Under Investigation For Bribing Foreign Government Officials

Uber is set to start rebuilding its reputation after a summer of scandal. It just needs a couple of weeks without any bad news — for example, that the Department of Justice is taking “preliminary steps to investigate whether managers at Uber Technologies Inc. violated a U.S. law against foreign bribery.”

That’s the bombshell takeaway from a new Wall Street Journal report, which alleges that Uber may have violated the  Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The FCPA makes it illegal for a US person or company to bribe a foreign government for favorable treatment. 

The WSJ doesn’t know which country (or countries!) may have been the recipient of bribes, but given Uber’s rapid expansion and general disregard for the rules, the list of possible places is nearly endless.

This isn’t the first bad news Uber has had from the government. A separate investigation is reportedly running into a program called Greyball, which Uber used to evade regulators in cities where it was operating against local regulations.

Under former CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber expanded at speed, but left a trail of destruction and bad PR in its wake. 

It frequently moved into a city before it was allowed to by local regulation, started up with low cost to get the local population on board, and then waged a public publicity battle to get its service legalized to some degree.

In the process, it frequently operates on the edge of the law. 

Because of its drivers’ status as contractors, rather than employees, it would be drivers having their cars seized. Uber would appear to be untouchable and able to conduct its business with little consequence.

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Unconfirmed Reports Have Been Posted On Social Media, That The Factory Building The New Electric Taxi Has Burned Down

From the BBC

More than 40 firefighters have tackled a blaze at a disused factory in Birmingham.

The fire on Holyhead Road, Handsworth, started just before 05:00 BST, West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service said.

The A41 Birmingham Road had to be closed earlier between Halfords Lane and Middlemore Road.

Jim Sinnot, from the fire service, said wood and cardboard inside the factory was ablaze and investigations into the cause are now taking place.

From The Telegraph :

Pictures have emerged of a blaze near the Holyhead Road in Coventry last night. 

Unconfirmed reports on social media suggested the blaze was at or near the London Taxi Company's factory based on Holyhead Road but firefighters apparently quickly dealt with the situation and put the fire out.

The factory is near the Sytner BMW site, opposite the Alvis Retail Park in Coundon.

Word of the fire became apparent after photographs were posted on various social media websites.

There were no details available from the emergency services last night.

The London Taxi company has opened a new factory in Ansty to build the new version of the famous London black cab.

We will have more updates on this story from 7am tomorrow morning.

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