Could Cambridge Have A London-Style 'Uber Ban'? Would They Just Kept Operating Regardless Of Ban?

Uber’s licence to operate in Cambridge is being reviewed to determine whether they are a “fit and proper” group to operate in the city.

In September, transport bosses at Transport for London (TfL) made headlines when they decided not to renew the licence for cab company Uber. The decision is currently being appealed.

Now, with the company’s licence in Cambridge approaching its expiry date, councillors will take a hard look at whether to allow them to keep operating in the city.

At the time, a spokesman for Cambridge City Council said: “We will look closely at the detail of TfL’s decision and the likely appeal Uber has indicated it will lodge against that decision before considering Uber’s operator licence in Cambridge, and whether that licence should be renewed or not.”

Next Monday (December 18), the city council’s Taxi Licensing Committee will discuss whether to renew the private hire operator’s licence held by Uber Britannia Limited.

Uber Britannia Limited was first issued with a Private Hire Operator’s Licence on December 21, 2015 for one year.

Due to Uber not having traded under the initial licence for a whole year, the subsequent renewal application was treated as a new application. The licence was issued on December 21, 2016 for a period of one year.

According to a report due to go before the committee: “Since November 2016, we have received six complaints regarding Uber as an operator.

“Five of these were received on the 15th and 16th November 2016, which was when Uber vehicles first appeared in Cambridge. The complaints related to how the bookings were made.

“Investigations carried out by the Licensing enforcement officers concluded that Uber was acting correctly.”

The report added that: “No complaints have been made to Cambridge City Council from members of the public in regards to journeys taken in Uber vehicles.

“At the time of the inspection, Uber Britannia Limited currently uses four private hire vehicles and drivers licensed by Cambridge City Council.”

Two letters objecting to the renewal of the Operator’s licence have been sent from Panther Taxis Ltd and a joint response from Cambridge City Licensed Taxis (CCLT) and Cambridge Hackney & Private Hire Association (CHPHA).

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Next Stage In The Uber Relicensing Scandal....We Have To Wait Till Next April.

Uber finally get the dat for their appeal against TFL's refusal to licence then as a private hire operator in London 

The date of the appeal has been set at 30 of April 2018. 

Uber were deemed not fit to operate back in September but instead of revoking their licence, which would have meant Uber had to stop all operations in London, TfL decided to only not renew their licence. This has allowed the company to carry on regardless. 

London's Mayor, Sadiq Khan recently said at a MQT at City Hall that this appeal process could take years to complete. 

Currently Uber are operating free of charge.

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Who At TfL Made The Decision To Scrap the Need For The 13,000 PH Drivers With Fake DBS To Reapply?

TfL appear to be in complete disarray after going back on their original statements that all PH drivers have the same enhanced criminal record DBS checks as licensed Taxis.

At a meeting with Taxi trade orgs, TfLTPH admitted 13,000 private hire drivers needed to reapply for DBS certificates, after using an unauthorised company which supplied their DBS certificates. 

It was made public in September that TfL had known about this issue as long ago as January 2017, but said and did nothing until the scandal came out in the national media. 

TfL said they would write to all 13,000 drivers, giving them 28 days to reapply, (an impossible task), but now, after nearly 4 months, and after the bad publicity has died down and moved on, it has been revealed that only 2,642 drivers have been contacted by TfLTPH. 

Because of the mountain of work involved, TfL appear to have moved the goal posts, making this statement to a query from Steve Garelick of the GMB Union:

All London PH drivers must do an enhanced DBS check. After reviewing the 13,000 records we identified & contacted 2,600 drivers who needed to request a new enhanced DBS check with our approved provider. 

This is not what the trade orgs were told the in the meeting with Mike Brown, where Helen Chapman said all 13,000 would be contacted and would need to reapply. 

It is now believed that TfLTPH only managed to contact the 2,600 drivers in the 28 day time frame, but then decided to drop the issue and move on. 

We have been informed by a TfL insider that all 13,000 questionable drivers have definitely not been contacted individually by TfL.

The only way the whole 13,000 affected drivers would have been informed about the current situation, is if they saw the article in the times, followed TfLTPH's account on Twitter...or read about the issue on the Taxi Leaks news blog.

TfLTPH went on to say:

We've suspended 875 licences of drivers who have yet to redo the enhanced DBS. 

That's one third or the drivers who TfLTPH actually managed to contact, seen as having unsuitable DBS checks. 

The figure for drivers needed to reapply has suddenly gone from 13,000 to just 875 !!!

So what about the remaining 12,125 ?

Going on the statistics made public by TfL in the reply to GMB's Steve Garelick, over a third of the drivers they actually contacted were not fit and proper to deal with the public.

It would be very interesting to find out, how many of the 48 #UberRapes victims fit into this demographic ?

As administrators, surely TfLTPH are libel to legal action for not giving the public adequate protection from sexual predators !

It seems Managers and Directors are leaving TfL at a speed of knots...is it the fear of being held legally responsible for heinous sexual attacks, or the thousands of illuminating emails sent back and forth between TfL and Uber, that are driving staff to resign ?

What are they afraid will be uncovered?

It would also be very interesting to know who made the decision only to contact 2,600 out of the 13,000 who they originally said needed to reapply. 

TfL....Totally Failing London

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Uber London : Uber heads to court to appeal London ban

Well, we finally got here. It was feared within certain sectors of the trade, from the way the Mayor was talking, that Uber's licence would be granted before this issue made it to court. 

Uber head to court on Monday, to fight Transport for London's refusal to relicense their London operation siting safety issues which they make the company unfit to be a private hire operator.

This kicks off the first of two crucial legal battles over the next fortnight.

The Instant eHailing app is appealing Transport for London's decision not to relicense when their current licence ran out in September. A move that was ineffective in banning Uber from the capital. The company is still being allowed to continue to operate while on appeal.  

This first appeal comes ahead of a critical decision at Europe’s highest court on Wednesday week, that will determine its regulatory future in Europe. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will decide whether Uber should qualify as a technology or transport company, a decision that may see it bound to strict local taxi regulations.

The company is facing a series of legal battles and government investigations around the world, and is fighting to restore its reputation after a disastrous year that has seen its founder Travis Kalanick forced to step down as chief executive. 

Its valuation is also under pressure as the Japanese giant SoftBank seeks to buy shares from insiders at a much lower price than its $70bn (£52bn) valuation suggests.

Last week it faced a new UK blow when its licence in Sheffield was revoked for allegedly failing to answer questions about its management. 

Uber put the ban down to an administrative error, saying the council had sent letters to the wrong address. Uber believe they are a law unto themselves saying it's easier to seek forgiveness than permission. 

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Everyone's getting ready to slide their sticky fingers in your moneybag.

We are being forced to buy a vehicle most cabbies won't be able to afford. 

Who can forget the BBC interview....tell me, why is this cab so expensive......well drivers will be saving £100 a week in diesel.

So they truly believe it's ok to hike up the price, because we are saving on diesel.

Not forgetting that the subsidy is finite and will disappear pretty quickly, everyone's queuing up to get their slice of the pie. 

Fast charge points:

These illusive items, contra to belief, will not be a free service. 

Trust me, it will be more expensive than diesel by the time you've pulled your trousers back up from buying one!

Just look at the signs....

No permit...no charging !

First of all, you will need to purchase a permit to be able to use these fast charging points.

Then there will be restrictions......notice the time limits.  7am till 10pm Maximum Stay 3 Hours!

Last full charge....7pm....so much for working nights.

Plus if a home charging unit is not possible where you live, you may have to leave home 3 hours earlier to find somewhere to charge your new Taxi, before you even can start work. 

But make sure you don't get there before 7am! 

    Northern councillors rubbing their hands 

Finally, why has no one asked TfL, The Mayor, or Geely this important question:

Is it true that while inside the new Ultra Low Emission Zone, you will be forbidden from using your range extender petrol generator???

Does this mean that in order to complete a reasonable day's working mileage, you will have to spend most of the day, outside the Ultra Low Emission Zone??? 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

Coming soon, from the All New London Taxi Radio 

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Should Use Of Mobile Units -Including Taxi and Private Hire Apps- Be Banned While Driving .... by Gerald Coba.

In light of the ever increasing amount of road collisions caused by drivers being distracted by SatNavs and mobile phones, we ask the question:

Should all mobile devices be banned from use while driving?

At present, you are not breaking the law if you use a hands free kit to talk on the phone whilst driving.

However, an increasing body of research is indicating that using a hands free kit such as a phone cradle, could be just as dangerous as using your mobile phone to text while driving. 

  

The level of distraction that using a mobile unit causes, is at the centre of the issue

This is especially true when following an onscreen SatNav, but is also true if you are having a hands free conversation. Research has shown that you visualise the person you are speaking to while you are on the phone. Doing so takes even more of your attention away from the road. 

An increasing amount of drivers can be seen wearing headphones, which can also make them unaware of the ambiant warning sounds, in the event of emergencies. 

Will hands free kits be the latest tech banned behind the wheel?

It's is not only hand free kits which have been found to be distracting motorists, other High-tech distractions include, SatNavs, streaming video on Mobiles, and also iPads can often be seen, attached to windscreens.

The safety of using high-tech dashboards has been called into question too, following research carried out by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The research looked at how long it takes drivers to perform certain activities on their high-tech dashboard. It produced plenty of interesting data, including the fact that it takes around 40 seconds to program an in-built sat-nav, which is a long time for a driver’s attention to be taken away from the road ahead. 

Other high-tech dashboard features that were tested were sending a text message and searching for something on the internet, both of which caused a high level of distraction. Even tuning the radio or making a phone call caused a moderate distraction.

When a driver takes their eyes off of the road for just two seconds, they double their chance of crashing their vehicle. Distractions are partly to blame for 11% of all fatal crashes

Becoming an all to familiar sight -See the video below from last night:

https://mobile.twitter.com/themickygee/status/939339662493134848/video/1

The AAA is pushing for auto manufacturers to start creating systems that don’t distract drivers any more than tuning a radio or listening to an audiobook does. One solution they have proposed is to lock certain high-tech dashboard features when the car is in motion, to prevent the driver from being tempted to use them.

The value of education

Educating drivers about the dangers of using technology at the wheel would certainly help. Perfectly legal technology can cause sufficient distraction to bring about a fatal crash, yet many drivers assume that because the technology is legal, it isn’t dangerous. 

It can be easy to feel in control despite your focus being elsewhere, even just for a few seconds. Breaking down the assumption that if tech is built into the car it is perfectly safe to use while driving is essential for improving the safety of our roads, particularly as vehicles continue to include more and more high-tech systems.

As research continues, it could well be that we see the use of hands free kits join the use of mobile phones in terms of what is banned behind the wheel. Doing so would certainly help to prevent accidents and make the UK’s roads safer.

• Do you use a hands free kit while driving? 

• Do you have a Taxi App on your phone?

• Do you feel particularly distracted when using? 

Leave a comment below to share your views. 

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Christmas Appeal : Sean Stockings Stripped Of Licence, Uber To Carry On Regardless.

    

 

Sean Stockings is married and has two children:

Since tfl revoked his licence he has not worked for 7 months.

His only crime....he video'd TfL Commissioner and Director having a meal in public sight, on the street...a public place. There were no criminal charges.

 

What Christmas do you think he's going to have this year?

If you want to donate £5-10 to him, just call the office on 020 7394 5553 

And we can take a CC payment and send it into his bank account today . Thank you

On the other hand we have Uber.

Five years of #UberDriverRape with an increase of 50% this year. Customer's details hacked and sold in bulk on the dark web. Escalating road traffic accident....vehicles working without insurance....drivers lending their vehicles and uber accounts to 'friends'.

• Thousands of young lives have been shattered by UberRape and serious sexual assaults!

• Uber System Breached By Hackers!

• Uber tries to cover up system hack!

• Customers account details sold on the dark web! 

• Customers billed for journeys they allege never happened!

• There have also been a number of avoidable deaths!

• Uber, finally found by TfL to be not fit and proper to hold an operators licence.

And yet their drivers have been allowed to carry on working as if nothing's happened. 

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