Lyft eyeing London market sooner rather than later, now Uber’s license renewal refusal.

Uber, the ridesharing startup, announced news on Tuesday (Sept. 26) that it will no longer operate in Quebec in October. The decision comes as a result of stricter transportation regulations in the Canadian province. 

According to a report in Reuters, the move on the part of Uber to pull out of what is the second most popular province for tourism in Canada comes just a few days after London’s transport agency decided not to renew its license in the city. Reuters cited Uber’s Quebec General Manager, Jean-Nicolas Guillemette as saying that the ridesharing company, which has more than 10,000 drivers in the city and 50 office workers, will stop operations in the province on Oct. 14.

Uber has called on the Canadian government to rethink its stricter regulations on a pilot program that had previously enabled Uber to operate in the province. “We’re asking the government to renew the pilot project and let’s sit down and find a solution to this,” the executive told Reuters. Under the new rules, drivers have to have 35 hours of training, which is the requirement for traditional taxi drivers in the area. 

Uber’s decision comes as its rival Lyft is looking to enter the Canadian transportation arena. Lobbyists for the company have met with officials in Toronto, reported Reuters, citing city records. Over the weekend, The Telegraphsaid that Lyft is also eyeing the London market and could be emboldened to move sooner rather than later now that Uber’s license in the city was revoked. 

According to a news report in The Telegraph, Lyft’s Head of Global Policy & Strategy, Michael Masserman, and Chief Strategy Officer Raj Kapoor have had face-to-face meetings and phone calls with Transport for London (TfL) officials during 2016. The talks were focused on the startup’s business model and operations, as well as the London mayor’s new transportation strategy for the city. 

One December meeting in London was attended by Helen Chapman, who is in charge of TfL’s taxi and private hiring unit. Others at the meeting included Peter Blake, TfL’s director of service operations and three unnamed representatives of the Greater London Authority

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Tfl plans to make £322m by collecting data from passengers' mobiles via Tube Wi-Fi

Transport for London (TfL) plans to make £322m by collecting Tube users' location data and potentially selling it to third parties, Sky News can reveal. 

At the end of 2016, TfL ran a pilot which tracked the Wi-Fi signals from 5.6 million phones as people moved around the London Underground, even if they weren't connected to a Wi-Fi network.

TfL publicly stated that the purpose of the scheme was to use the aggregated, anonymised data "to better understand how people navigate the London Underground network, allowing TfL to improve the experience for customers".

It is now in consultation about tracking passengers on a permanent basis. The only way to opt out of the scheme would be to turn your Wi-Fi or phone off.

Wi-Fi tracking is used around the UK, especially on high streets and shopping centres, to track customers as they move around a store, for example.

However, documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that they also anticipate there will be a significant financial benefit from the scheme, in contrast to TfL's public messaging.

Many of the documents list 'financial' as the first benefit of the scheme. In one, a section called Advertising Partnerships states: "Enabling TfL to achieve £322m revenue generation over the next eight years by being able to quantify asset value based on the number of eyeballs/impressions and dynamically trade advertising space."

Another document details TfL's communications strategy for the pilot. The 'key messaging' intended for the public reads: "TfL collects Wi-Fi connectivity data to better understand journey patterns and improve our services" - with no mention of the anticipated financial benefits to TfL.

Lauren Sager Weinsten, chief data officer at TfL, told Sky News: "These are living documents. The excitement on this project has been how to create a project that will have great customer benefit and how do we explain to our customers what we're doing and why. We have been very transparent about all the documents and our thinking on this.

"And of course we want to make sure that we're very clear about all the different benefits that we'll see. There's a huge customer benefit and it's very exciting to see the patterned information that comes out of this.

"But we also do think that there is an opportunity to improve our secondary revenue that we get through our commercial advertising estate and through our retail developments as well, and that's also important as well."

Asked repeatedly by Sky News, Mr Sager Weinstein refused to rule out that TfL might in the future sell aggregated customer data to third parties.

TfL reinvests all its profits in its services. The organisation notified Tube users with prominent displays about the 2016 trial. The only way for people to opt out of the scheme was to turn off their phone's Wi-Fi while on the underground.

Maria Farrell, internet policy consultant at the Open Rights Group, told Sky News: "What they told people at the time was we're going to use this data to improve services. But now thanks to [Sky News] investigative reporting, we find out that it's partly to improve the services, but also it's to exploit people's data for revenue, doing advertising."

TfL worked with the Information Commissioner's Office on the scheme and said that user data was anonymised. But privacy experts have cast doubt on the implementation.

Paul-Olivier Dehaye, the cofounder of PersonalData.IO, told Sky News: "TfL don't seem to understand what 'anonymised' means in data protection terms. While the pilot was running, the data was merely pseudonymisation, while retaining the technical capacity of easily combining this data with external datasets.

"In essence, the value and dangers of this data are still fully there, but TfL has merely constructed a fiction that the individuals were not identifiable and conveniently assumed that would free them from the legal safeguards."

Dr Lukasz Olejnik, independent cybersecurity and privacy researcher, told Sky News: "TfL has definitely identified some privacy risks and tried to tackle them. They should be applauded for that.

"It's important to note that TfL does not provide an anonymization scheme. It's called pseudonymization, as the data are not processed in a way making it impossible to calculate the data back, given resources.

"Commuters should have clear ways of opting out from Wi-Fi tracking monitoring if they choose so. Designing convenient options is paramount."

Source: SkyNews 

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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.

Sign The Petition : 

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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