Uber defends business model at UK tribunal on worker rights

Reform Taxi Laws and Stop Cross Border Working

I want uk govt to legislate urgently to Stop cross border working licensed vehicles and drivers work in the area of licence. 

Reform taxi laws to reflect technology, create national data for drivers,vehicles and private hire operators, common national standards, give more enforcement powers to local Local Authorities, national standards for local knowledge test, proper high standards regulations for private hire operators etc etc

Why is this important?

Its important taxi trade is properly regulated, its objective should be to protect public, first priority must be safety of the public and drivers properly regulated with high standards, by giving effective powers to local authorities to regulate and enforce.

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TFL Board Member, Michael Liebreich, Raises Questions Over Uber Tax Structure

As Uber fights to retain its license in London, the company faces questions over its tax structure where its alleged this multi billion dollar company, actually pays less tax than four licensed cabbies... it also pays no VAT on fares — these concerns have been raised with the London transport regulator by TfL board member, Mr Liebreich.

According to an email sent to other TfL board members and officials in August, Michael Liebreich said the question of tax was:

 “Relevant to Uber’s relicensing” and asked how Uber does not pay VAT “in the UK on services it provides in the UK”.

Uber books all of its UK rides through a Dutch subsidiary, which incidentally is against TfL regulation. This factor allows it to avoid paying the 20 per cent value added tax charged on goods and services in the UK.

Mr Liebreich’s email went on to say:

“I know tax is a question for HMRC, but I have never understood how Uber’s services can be London-based for the purposes of the Taxi and Private Hire Act 1998, but non-UK based for the purposes of taxation, in particular VAT”. The email also raised concerns about safety and Uber’s use of “Greyball” software that blocks regulators from seeing the app in the city.

Mr Liebreich’s email was sent to almost 50 TfL board members, officials and assistants, including Helen Chapman, head of the taxi and private hire division, and Val Shawcross, deputy mayor for transport. Uber have declined to comment on the email.

TfL did not cite tax in its decision to revoke Uber’s license, instead pointing to its concerns in areas such as reporting criminal offences and obtaining fake medical certificates and fake background checks for drivers, as grounds for the denial.

Unusually, Uber will be allowed to continue to operate while it appeals against the decision, a process that could take months. The fact that from this Saturday (30th September) Uber will be operating without a licence, seems to be of no consequence to TfL....and yet, London Cabby Sean Stocking, who's licence also was revoked by  Peter Blake of TfL, has been thrown out of work, causing great hardship on his family, while waiting for his appeal to be heard....again one rule for Uber, and another rule for a Taxi drivers.

Uber’s strategy to avoid the UK’s 20 per cent VAT is not unique, but is the subject of a court case this year where the plaintiff sued Uber to demand a VAT receipt for an Uber trip. That case, which is still ongoing, could push Uber to collect VAT if the plaintiff wins.

Uber argued in that case that it is only an agent acting on behalf of the drivers who are self-employed, and is not itself a service provider, and thus not responsible for collecting VAT.

Separately, the company’s lawyers will begin an appeal on Wednesday this week, against an employment tribunal ruling last year that found its drivers were “workers” owed the minimum wage and holiday pay.

The questions raised by Mr Liebreich’s email is serious, and it's worrying that only he has bought this up.

Why is Uber's operation only now being investigated? How/why have they been allowed to circumvent the regulation which state all bookings must be received by an operator in the area they are licensed?

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Osborne should resign a "conflicting job" after Uber bias

For immediate release: Tuesday 26th September

Zoom.taxi Chief executive Matthew Kendall has called on George Osborne to resign one of his "conflicting jobs" after the newspaper he edits took sides in the Uber debate.

The former chancellor is paid £650,000 a year for working four days a month for BlackRock which has a £500 million investment in the transport giant as well as editing the Evening Standard.

The appointment of Mr Osborne caused anger amongst Black Cab drivers and those employed in the private hire vehicle industry as well as employment rights campaigners.

"In his leader column in the Evening Standard Mr Osborne wrote: ‘The emergence of this gig economy has been of huge benefit.’," said Mr Kendall.

"Well what it seems like is the emergence of this gig has been a huge benefit to Mr Osborne and his bank balance."

Mr Osborne also took aim at Labour's shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey after she said she does not use the San Fransisco transport giant, with the paper branding her 'out of touch'.

"The Evening Standard has a proud history as the voice of Londoners and that includes Black Cab drivers and other private hire companies who stick to Transport for London's rules or get their license revoked. 

"But it is now being used as a vehicle for Mr Osborne's own personal beliefs and, it could be argued, his business interests. 

"Uber claimed that this decision put 40,000 jobs at risk despite the fact their drivers are self employed - which also means they don't have to charge VAT so appear 20 per cent cheaper than companies who do fully contribute to the exchequer.

"This line was perpetuated in the media, including the Evening Standard, which also ran two 'op eds' in support of the company but nothing in support of the decision by TfL, which was backed up by a group of MPs.

"Over 260,000 drivers were in work before Uber and they remain in work without Uber. Many drivers for Uber also work for other PHV companies already and there are companies actively recruiting for workers currently.

"Of course we support debate on this subject and there are always ways an industry can improve, but in this David vs Goliath battle it's the giant who also has the sling shot."

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Uber Demand No Yearly Checks, No CRB Checks And No Training... Or Will Cease Operation In Montreal

The Primark Effect....Or Congestion Making Taxi Fares Look Expensive? By Jim Thomas

Virtually empty segregated cycle lanes causing massive congestion and dangerous pollution levels.

I'm fed up with being told how expensive Taxis are, when in fact what we're experiencing, is 'the Primark effect!'

If you shop exclusively in Primark, Poundland and Iceland for a few months, then suddenly go in to M&S or Waitrose, you get the shock of your life. 

But it's not like for like, you've become accustomed to low quality, substandard goods produced by children in third-world countries and when you compare the quality, M&S and Waitrose win hands down. 

People want cheap....until it comes back to bite them on the arse. Ask a rape victim if they would have preferred to pay another couple of quid ...and got home safe!

Ask the celebrity who bought a cheap Disney dress and saw her daughter engulfed in flames if she'd like to go back and pay more for a flame proof dress!

When the unspeakable happens, cheap doesn't factor in, it's just too late after a tragedy!

Let's now go back to Taxi prices!

We appear to be expensive because we are being compared like for like to a company using slave labour (willing to work well below the living wage), fares subsidised using vast investment from huge financial corporations, operating an illegal form of predator pricing, with drivers using a vehicle half the price of ours, subsidised in many cases by the fact they don't have the correct insurance. 

This has been sold to the drivers as a part time job, where you can just pop out and take a few quid when your not doing anything!

Also look at the costs involved in doing the knowledge as compared to signing up to Uber!

Taxi Fares:

The Taxi trade have had little to no fare increase in many years and suddenly...we've become too expensive?

If we wasn't too expensive 6 years ago, why are we too expensive now....we haven't had a noticeable fare increase!

What we do have now is congestion....massive congestion. 

Caused by road works in virtually every major street, with side streets closed to through traffic. 

We also have a new phenomenal of the segregated cycle lanes which (although the Lycra brigade won't admit it) also cause congestion 24/7.

Take a trip to tower bridge along Upper and Lower Thames street at one o clock in the morning....its mashed!

A scandalous victim of the greenie cycle brigade which is causing massive congestion, pollution and lengthy journey delays.

And they have the ironic cheek to have speed cameras along this route. 

On top of this, in the day time, we no have the bank Junction exclusion of Taxis.....adding to the surrounding chaos.

Add to this madness the congestion caused by the escalation of an uncapped Private Hire Trade, with TfL selling PHV licenses like sweets..... Of course Cab journeys are taking much longer than they did five years ago...... and it's being reflected in the price!

Should we reduce fares to compensate?

If the drivers themselves decide to reduce prices, then (in Taxi Leaks opinion) it should be done across the full spectrum of rates, with a set percentage drop. 

There has been a call to scrap rate 3 but this comes mainly from day and evening drivers who wouldn't be affected. 

What good would this do as the problem of traffic and higher journey prices is a 24 hour problem?

A set percentage drop would be much fairer. 

Plus if you take away the incentive to work unsocial hours, then you could be creating a shortage of drivers at night, going back to a pre-Livingston era.

There's also been plenty of talk about a set price (bell the meter) for journeys to Heathrow, but why should airport jobs get a discount yet a Northwood Hills resident have to pay the full price?

As we've said many times before, it's no good blaming the Taxi trade, it's really not our fault. Our prices are set by TfL and ratified by Parliament. Hire journey prices have resulted from avoidable congestion.

To solve this problem, you have to look towards TfL and local councils who make these crazy planning decisions. 

What ever happened to the traffic Zhar who's job was to coordinate road works?

If we were to have a competition to find the worst council of all, Camden would win hands down!

The new traffic schemes implemented across Fitzrovia have seen greatly increased journey times/costs, through extremely bad planning. Three major transport termini are within minutes of the worst transit scheme ever seen on London streets. Everything appears to be geared around cycles, with no thought whatsoever to travellers using the three stations. TfL won't get involved because the current schemes encourage travellers to use the tube.  

In the run up to the Mayoral election, Sadiq Khan promised us "use of all bus lanes" to help with journey times/ cost but has now done a U-turn saying Bus drivers have complained that they don't want Taxis in 'their' lanes....how ironic....as many bus drivers now work part time for uber!

One bit of good news...Taxis are to be allowed to use the bus lane in front of the UCH in order to ease traffic from the Euston underpass. But don't use until the TMO is in place and the new signage has been uncovered. 

There's been a lot of meaningless sound bites from TfL and the Mayor's office lately, but the one that gets my blood boiling is "London is open"

It should be "it'll be nice when it's finished"

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Victory For Addison Lee Drivers As Tribunal Finds They Are Entitled To Basic Workers’ Rights

An important ruling, which will affect thousands of Addison Lee drivers, the Employment Tribunal has today ruled that a group of Addison Lee drivers were not self-employed, as Addison Lee argued, but are workers who are entitled to essential workers’ rights, including to be paid the National Minimum Wage, receive holiday pay and not have their contracts terminated because they are members of a Trade Union.

The drivers’ claims, which are supported by the trade union, GMB, were heard in the London Central Employment Tribunal in July 2017.

Liana Wood, from the Employment team at law firm Leigh Day, which represents the drivers, said: “We are very pleased that the Employment Tribunal has found in favour of our clients.

"This judgment acknowledges the central contribution that Addison Lee’s drivers have made to the success of the company by confirming that its drivers are not self-employed but that they work for Addison Lee as part of Addison Lee’s business.

"Addison Lee advertises itself as a premium driving service and seeks to ensure that its drivers meet the high standard required for that premium service. However, Addison Lee drivers very often work very long hours, in excess of 60 hours a week, in order to just earn enough to cover their basic living costs. Addison Lee has sought to deny its drivers the most basic workers’ rights, including to be paid the National Minimum Wage and to receive paid holiday.

"This is a very important decision by the Employment Tribunal and will go some way to addressing these issues. This decision will not just have an impact on the thousands of Addison Lee drivers but, following on from the decision in Uber, on all workers in the so-called gig economy whose employers classify them as self-employed and deny them the rights to which they are entitled.

There will now be a further hearing in the Employment Tribunal to calculate the holiday and pay that the drivers should receive. 

Source : Leigh Day.

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