Uber London needs to file its license appeal this week – what will happen if it doesn’t?

Today marks the deadline for Uber London to file its license appeal after Transport for London (TfL) revoked it last month.

If the ride-sharing startup’s London subsidiary doesn’t file the appeal in time, it will cease to operate in London on Friday 13 October.

Uber lost its private operating license in the UK’s capital city after the transport regulator raised concerns over the way it had failed to report serious criminal offences and its policy over Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.

TfL has concluded that Uber London Limited is not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator license.

What has happened since the ruling?

TfL made its ruling on 22 September, giving the startup three weeks to file an appeal. Uber has continued to operate in the city during this time. If it does file its appeal today, it will be allowed to operate during the appeals process.

This could take up to two years.

Verdict Email The issues you care about

Last week, Uber’s new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi metwith the commissioner of TfL, Mike Brown, to discuss ways for the startup to regain its license.

On the day of the meeting, Khosrowshahi tweeted an image of himself with some of the company’s drivers in London

Uber answers to MPs 

This week, Uber and other gig economy startups like Deliveroo, were in front of the UK government’s business select committee to answer questions over workers’ rights.

This comes after the publication of the Taylor Report, which called for better treatment of self-employed workers.

During the hearing, the startup’s head of public policy, Andrew Bryne, said that Uber had shown “the wrong attitude” on a number of issues.

Byrne added that there was now a path forward with TfL to address the regulator’s concerns.

What do Uber drivers think?

According to posts on the online forum UberPeople, which is not affiliated with the company, drivers are saying they think the startup will get its operating license back.

The Telegraph reported that the company has hired a “TfL nemesis lawyer” to lead its appeal. The lawyer, Thomas de la Mare, has fought battles on Uber’s behalf against the regulator before

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Are Uber's London Account Numbers Double Dutch ???

The reason Uber won't come clean on this, is that it would expose the reality that if they had the 40,000 drivers, they would be working just over four hours per week says GMB.

GMB comments on the latest set of accounts, for year ending 31 December 2016, released by Uber London, the UK operating company.

Maria Ludkin, GMB Legal Director said:

"Uber could demonstrate its new found humility shown to the Mayor of London by showing a bit of transparency in its UK accounts.

“Uber gives the impression that it has an income of £36.9m in the UK by selling unspecified services to other Uber overseas companies - in other words it is an exporter of services from the UK. What a pile of tosh.

“In fact, Uber sends all the fare income made in the UK to a company in Holland.

"This Dutch company pays 75% of this income to drivers in the UK. GMB is working on the basis that the other 25% is the commission to Uber that comes back to the UK and makes up the lion’s share of Uber income in the UK.

“The reason Uber won't come clean on this is that it would expose the reality that the 40,000 drivers would be working just over four hours per week for Uber. So much for 40,000 jobs being on the line.

“It is high time that Uber stopped the spinning and came clean on what hours its drivers work each week.”

ENDS

TAXI LEAKS COMMENT :

So Uber are worried about the 40,000 jobs they say they are not responsible for. 

The same workers they don’t want to give basic workers rights to

The same workers they are looking to replace with autonomous vehicles as soon as possible 

The word on everyone’s lips is “Hypocrites”

This link below is a must watch:

https://twitter.com/MilitantCab/status/917736086276837376

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT:

TfL Ref: FOI-1306-1718

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 31 August 2017 asking for information about legal costs. Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

The total expenditure, as at the end of August 2017 and since June 2014, is £291,679. This figure is inclusive of VAT.

We do not hold an expected estimate of future costs and so are unable to provide you with this information.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Lee Hill

Senior FOI Case Officer

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Was This Uber Driver, One Of Helen Chapman's 13,000 Without A DBS Certificate.

Uber driver ‘sexually assaulted a woman’ and told her to ‘stay in the car’ in South London

An Uber driver sexually assaulted a passenger, telling her: “Stay in the car. I’ll make you feel good,” a court heard.

The young woman says she had fallen asleep and woke to find Andrew Aluge, 46, “stroking and caressing” her leg.

He then grabbed her ankle as she tried to flee, she told a jury.

She said: “I suddenly felt really scared like he was going to rape me.”

The woman said she escaped and fled to a friend’s flat nearby.

Aluge denied inappropriately touching her during a trip to Tulse Hill, South London.

He claimed he tapped her on the leg to wake her up and was annoyed because she had her feet on his seat.

Aluge, of Vauxhall, South London, denies sexual assault at Inner London crown court.

The case continues: Source The Sun.

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA COMMENT: 

Could this alleged attack have been prevented?

Was this Uber driver one of the drivers with a fake DBS certificate?

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Man Fighting For His Life After Being Mowed Down By Another Sat-Nav Gazing PH Driver.

Pedestrian fighting for life in hospital after collision with Minicab  in Belsize Road....source : Camden New Journal

A man is in hospital with “life threatening” head injuries this evening after a collision with a car in Belsize Road.

Emergency services were called to the scene of the collision, at the junction with Abbey Road, at around midday and found a pedestrian, believed to be his his late-50s, with serious head injuries.

He was taken to St Mary’s Hospital, where he is receiving emergency treatment. Police said his injuries are “believed to be life threatening”.

The driver of the vehicle stopped at the scene.

Police have advised motorists to avoid the area, with road closures remaining in place.

Pictures of the scene showed a shopping trolley left stranded in the road.

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Exclusive...RT Minicab Livery Is Illegal, Say TfLTPH...But Will They Act On It ?... By Jim Thomas.

Taxi Leaks Breaking News 

We asked TfLTPH the question "Had the PH act 1998 been changed to allow full livery adverts on PHVs 

We offered this picture as part of the question .

To be honest, and going on the fact, the last time we asked them a question, after the 70th time of asking and getting no reply.....we didn't anticipate hearing back. 

We also put this photo on Taxi Leaks and copied TfLTPH into a tweet.....

Well, to our surprise, this afternoon we got this back from them.

So there you have it!

The Minicabs currently displaying the RT livery on super sides and rear window....are illegally advertising and should be reported!

 

We would hope that TfL will come down on this with the same amount of gusto they used when insisting that a copy of the a Taxi magazine was unauthorised advertising, when left on rear window shelves. 

Trouble is, TfL management bottle it when up against private hire companies, as we saw with the Addison Lee Rugby World Cup full lively on a number of their vans. 

Even though there were hundreds of complaints and TPH said the livery was illegal....Addison Lee continued to display until after the tournament had finished. We were informed later that no action was taken against Addison Lee by TfL, in regards to this issue!

So anyway,  let's keep reporting sightings of these RT Minicabs, clear photo showing number plate, along with location date and time....but let's not hold our breath waiting for TfL to take action. 

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Could The Leytonstone, Buckingham Palace And Exhibition Road Atrocities Been Avoided... With A More Competent TfLTPH? By Jim Thomas

Leytonstone Slasher, Palace Attacker And Exhibition Road Driver. Did these Uber Drivers Have Fake DBS Certificates?

Could these attacks have been avoided by a competent TfLTPH?

There's an old saying, "Make hay while the sun shines".

Everyone was expecting the work to drop off dramatically when our friends from the middle east went home. Instead there appears to be a massive surge (excuse the pun) in Taxi street hails. 

Have the public finally seen sense, and are flocking back to the Trade?

No such luck. 

So what's behind the increase in work levels over the last week or so...Could it be the thousands of Uber drivers on suspension?

To find out what's happening, we have to look back to the TfL letter sent out to 13,000 beer drivers last month.

As the news filtered through to the trade at the end August, claims were made that TfL had known since January about the fake DBS certificates. A massive scandal ensured, allegations were made that top TfL managers had already swept the issue under the carpet.

But the information, (discovered by the LCDC team), was fed to the national press. It was apparent that 13,000 uber drivers had presented fake DBS applications.  

As the news broke in the media and in an attempt to cover their backs, TfL sent every applicant with a suspected unsafe DBS a letter, explaining they had 28 days to reapply... or their licence would be suspended. 

The 28 days are now up.

Taxi Leaks has been informed that the DBS service have struggled to cope with the mass excess of reapplications. 

Under normal circumstances, flat out the DBS handle an average of 4,000 applications a month. It became apparent two years ago, they were struggling with this number, which often results in Taxi driver renewals not being processed on time. 

Last month, they were given an extra 13,000 to deal with -in one month- a seemingly impossible task, to an already over stretched service. 

So the inevitable appears to have happened and allegedly, over 10,000 Uber drivers have had their licenses suspended pending resubmission. 

At a meeting with trade org leaders, Helen Chapman  explained; not only did she feel it was 'not necessary for the 13,000 to resubmit', but also stated to those present that she believes whole heartedly, 'all those who would reapply, would pass'.

See Taxi Leaks 11/09/2017

http://ift.tt/2g1LGZW

Was it not Helen Chapman who put out statements to the trade and the press that 'all private hire drivers have an enhanced DBS checks...the same stringent checks that Taxi drivers have'....?

In a recent poll on Twitter, 98% Taxi Leaks readers felt if just one Uber driver's resubmission for a DBS is refused, Helen Chapman should resign!

 

It's time to pay the piper Helen. 

If just one applicant is refused on grounds of a serious offence, Taxi Leaks readers feel you have no option other than to join the recent exodus of TfL managers.

It will make an interesting FOI request to find out if the Uber drivers in the Palace attack or the Exhibition Road atrocity, were on the list of fake DBS applicants. 

TFL's arrogance and incompetence has again, put the public in grave danger. 

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Licensed to kill?' by I'm Spartacus

So yet more scenes of mayhem and carnage on London's streets as pedestrians are mown down outside the Natural History Museum.

Let hope all those injured make a full recovery but we can be sure the event will haunt them forever, today the accident investigation teams will have the cameras and tapes out doing their job, but if you really want to stop recurrence you have to deal with the root causes.

1. The practice of accepting hirings (I won't insult your intelligence by calling them a pre booking) whilst in a moving vehicle must cease forthwith, it isn't safe UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. No more platitudes and weasel words BAN IT TfL.

2. The exhibition of vehicles available for hire (Eastbourne case refers) was, is and will remain plying for hire, it's this mechanism that causes job offers to appear on a screen so that a driver has to interact with a screen within seconds when their eyes should be on the road, as above BAN IT TfL!

3. The nonsense (only in London by the way) that a PH registered vehicle can be driven by a non PH licensed driver, bearing in mind the shocking rates paid to drivers this leads to the inevitable use by 'cousins, uncles and brothers' driving these vehicles and undertaking bookings or as we know Plying for Hire via an app.

Again stop this now by as a first step introducing fleet insurance & secure recognition logins whilst the law is amended.

Why do you think some operators are spending millions on lobbying to prevent fleet insurance rules, withdrawal of 'on screen ranks', or booking time limits or even the simple provisos of a telephone line, NOTHING BUT NOTHING must get in the way of the 25% cut that goes offshore. 

TfL as a last resort after an operator was given ample time to up its game decided to not renew a licence, followed by a maelstrom of comment from ill informed politicians who if they purport to be even half competent should have researched even a tiny bit, but hey why let the facts obstruct political point scoring?

So citizens there we have it a stark choice.

 

Do we have a set of rules, conditions and standards that protect the public and uphold the declared intent of TfL, the Mayor & government for a two tier Taxi & PH system that is safe

OR WE CARRY ON LICENSING TO KILL.

Some in the trade fight shy of parallels with other tragedies, but as anyone who has seen the smouldering tomb of Grenfell Tower and will never forget it, knows that it's a failure of regulation, enforcement and standards that have led to so many deaths.

So let's ignore all the 'free trade & consumer choice' bogus arguments that don't withstand even a moments scrutiny and I probably suspect that as deaths and serious injuries only occur a few at at time, it’s somehow acceptable!

What kind of city do we want?

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