Uber's Policy Of "It's Easier To Ask Forgiveness Than Permission" Suspended In Morocco

Uber said on Monday it would suspend operations in Morocco, two years after they began, as it tries to bring its business into line with local laws.

Uber has already halted services in Norway and Finland as it waits for the regulatory framework to change in those countries, a sign of the less pugnacious approach the company is taking toward local authorities. 

The U.S. ride-hailing company has faced bans, restrictions and protests around the world as it disrupts conventional taxi services. But its new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, has struck a more conciliatory tone after a string of controversies that emerged under the former CEO, Travis Kalanick. 

“Since we launched in Morocco over two years ago, there has been a lack of clarity about new platforms like Uber and how they fit into the existing transport model,” Uber said in a statement. 

The company has engaged with policymakers to find a solution but “despite consistent dialogue ... we have yet to see any constructive progress on the regulations and can safely say we have exhausted all measures.” 

Uber will halt its services in Casablanca on Friday. It said services would resume as soon as new rules were in place. 

Morocco only recognizes conventional taxis and has no provisions for private hire vehicles. 

Uber has had to suspend its service using non-professional drivers in several European cities like Paris and Brussels, but it still operates a licensed service there. 

Khosrowshahi, who took over at Uber last year, said in October that “regulating services like Uber is totally appropriate”. 

Uber has 19,000 regular riders in Morocco and 300 drivers, who will be provided with financial support over the next two weeks. 

“We are committed to supporting the hundreds of drivers that have benefited from the economic opportunities of using the Uber app. We will be working closely with them through this difficult transition,” Uber said.

Source Reuters 

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Minicab Sexual Predator, Convicted For Grooming Young Passenger !

A 35-year-old male minicab driver has been convicted of attempting to meet a girl under 16 after grooming her. 

Spyros Ntounis, 35 [27.06.82] of Drayton Green Road, Ealing W13 was found guilty today, Monday, 19 February, following a three-day trial at Kingston Crown Court.

He was brought to justice following an investigation by the Met's Roads and Transport Policing Command Taxi and Private Hire Policing Team.

Ntounis, a private-hire vehicle driver, started committing the offence on Saturday, 22 April 2017 at 21:28hrs, when he picked up a 14-year-old girl from an address in Barnes.

The girl got into the backseat of the car and once the journey started, Ntounis engaged her in conversation, much of which was inappropriate. He gave her his telephone number in case she ever needed a mincab in the future, but got her to text him so that he would know if it was her.

Near to the end of the journey, Ntounis slowed down so much that the girl asked him why. He told her it was so he could spend more time her. They arrived at the victim's address and she went inside.

Ntounis then sent several messages to the girl on WhatsApp, which she replied to. Becoming concerned about the interaction, the girl told her parents. They blocked Ntounis's messages on WhatsApp and informed police. Undeterred, he later texted her directly. 

In order to get written evidence, the parents advised their daughter to respond to the texts before blocking those messages as well. In the messages, Ntounis admitted he had realised her age. The parents then reported this to police as well. 

Police officers carried out a search of Ntounis's home address, however he was not there. They later managed to contact Ntounis by phone and arranged for him to attend a north London police station on 30 May where he was cautioned. He gave a no comment interview.

Ntounis was released under investigation for enquiries to progress. Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, a charge of attempting to meet girl under 16 following sexual grooming was authorised. 

Ntounis was summonsed to court by Postal Charge and Requisition. 

Ntounis appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on 18 July 2017 where he pleaded not guilty. He will be sentenced on a date to be confirmed. 

Inspector Jas Sandhu, Met's Roads and Transport Policing Command said: "The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will not tolerate any offences committed upon passengers of taxi and private hire vehicles and will robustly pursue offenders. 

"Thanks to the actions by the victim and her family and the Met's investigation, a dangerous individual's actions have been stopped from going any further." 

Siwan Hayward, Transport for London's Head of Transport Policing, said: "We take all allegations against licensed Taxi and Private Hire drivers extremely seriously and as soon as we were made aware of this offence we suspended this driver's licence immediately. As this case shows, reporting any behaviour that makes you feel uncomfortable is very important. It will be taken seriously and by working closely with the police we will fully investigate all allegations, bring offenders to justice and push for the toughest penalties possible."

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT.

So Siwan, it can be done.....

If 'reporting any behaviour that makes you feel uncomfortable is very important', why wasn't Uber driver Shahid Qureshi's Licence suspended after his first sexual assault?....(you remember....the Uber driver convicted yesterday for sexual assault on a passenger a year after he was arrested for a similar office in December 2016). 

Surely Siwan at TfLTPH, you have a duty of care to protect the public....if you are not doing this, then it's time you were relieved of your position and the post given to someone who can actually succeed in the job of protecting the public.  

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Uber drops appeal over English language tests for London drivers

Is Sexual Predator Uber Driver, One of Helen Chapman’s 13,000 With Unsafe DBS Check ?

Dear Helen Chapman 

Just read this post on the Court News UK website. 

Apparently one of your Uber Private Hire Drivers has been jailed for molesting a 16 year old Japanese school girl just a year after he was previously arrested for groping another woman in his Uber minicab. 

Can you please tell us how TfLTPH under your direction, have allowed this sexual predator to carry on working as a licensed private hire driver, after having been arrested by police just over a year ago for a previous sexual attack on a young woman ?

Surely you have a duty of care to protect the public from sexual predators. 

Is Shahid Qureshi one of the 13,000 Uber drivers with a fake DBS criminal record checks that your department swept under the carpet. 

If this is the case, you need to resign immediately affect.

 

We will be asking our GLA councillors to investigate this matter fully.

The inaction from your department over these unsafe DBS checks, is resulting in serious sexual assaults (including rapes) across the capital and the responsibility lays firmly on your shoulders Helen. 

How do you sleep at night knowing that you have allowed unsafe Uber drivers to carry on working, putting the public at great risk ?

Article in today’s Court News Post 

  A married Uber driver who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old exchange student and told her ‘This is England,’ was jailed for 12 months today (mon). Shahid Qureshi, 42, molested the Japanese teenager less than a year after he was arrested for groping a woman in his car. Qureshi had insisted his passengers sat in the front passenger seat before kissing and pawing them, Inner London Crown Court heard.

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Uber Partner With Jump Eyeing Up TFL's Boris Bike Market

Not satisfied with running the 364 year old London Taxi and Private Hire trades into the ground, Uber now turning its attention on TFL's Bike hire service, with a small push from an electric motor on Uber's new bike-share option.

Uber have partnered with Jump Bikes in San Francisco to offer an electric-motor assisted ride to users (and pull in the bike commuters to conquer even more of the commuting market) --  

A reporter from Mashable in San Fransisco gives it a spin.

After signing up for the waitlist, I got access to the newest option on the Uber app: Uber Bike.

Instead of little cars scurrying around the screen I was bombarded with all the nearby bikes and each one's distance from me. I had plenty of options

I went with bike 0642 locked to a bike rack near the park bench where I was eating a sandwich. 

It was a good-enough looking bike, bright red with "JUMP" on the sloping frame. Someone had trashed a Snapple carton into its large basket, so I put that where it belonged and then followed the prompts through the app to unlock my bike. Pretty straight-forward stuff, there's even a slot to put the U-lock while you ride. 

My purse and camera bag fit in the basket just fine and the lock didn't take up any of my personal storage space.

I clicked on my helmet (you have to provide your own) and realized this bike with its electric motor to help you pedal was a lot heavier than your average bicycle. 

As I adjusted to the clunky, heavy frame I circled South Park for a few laps, adjusting the gears, and then headed back toward my office building nearby. 

With a friend, we rode up and down the street behind my building in San Francisco's SoMa neighbourhood.

It wasn't a carbon fiber racing bike, but it felt sturdy and stable. I also wasn't about to go off-roading or mountain biking with this, but on the pavement I could handle it and felt comfortable enough riding for a quick 20 minutes.

My friend who commutes into San Francisco from the Peninsula, south of the city, figures she could combine a bike ride with her train ride to get from the station to her downtown office instead of the 20-minute walk. Like many bike-share users, the bikes come in handy for the first or last mile of a commute -- not for the entire trip.

For someone like her who would use Uber Bike within its minimum 30-minute window before you start getting charged 7 cents per minute, she'd rack up two $2-rides a day. With tax, that's about $4.40 a day, about $20 each week. So it adds up even if the price sounds like pocket change at only $2 for 30 minutes.

Back on my ride I didn't make it very far in the end, but I found a rack right next to where I was. I attached the bike with the U-locked, ended the ride on the app, and immediately got a receipt. Since it was all through the Uber app it felt familiar. My first Uber Bike ride was a success.

Uber Bike is following the bike-sharing trend that has been growing in cities like San Francisco for years. Ford GoBike is a bike-share mainstay at this point with what seems like endless stations throughout the city and has electric bikes coming in April. 

New York has its Citi Bikes, but Jump brings in the seamless dock-less system that has gotten huge in other markets, like China. Except instead of locking to itself, the bikes lock to bike racks. The flexibility to lock and leave bikes anywhere makes other station-based bike-shares seem unwieldy and cumbersome —as long as people don't abuse the system.

Instead of sharing bikes with the masses, there's always the option to buy your own bicycle and commute to work on your own two wheels. But the electric-assist on Jump to help get up hills or speed up your ride is an alluring option that can be pricey to own outright. 

Take this electric balance bike (that's no pedals!) available to pre-order starting Wednesday. 

It's $3,467 for the 500-watt electric motor bicycle with a large wooden frame that goes for about 30 miles on a charge. Though, with no pedals, at what point is this no longer biking and just riding...

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LCDC Rep To Hold Q&A Session With Suburban Drivers On Periscope 20/02/2018 At 4pm.

On Tuesday the 20th of Feb 2018 at 1600 hours LCDC suburban rep Rob Cardwell @iamcabman, will be attempting a first for the London taxi trade! 

He’ll be holding a Q&A with Suburban drivers on Periscope #TalktotheLCDCsuburbanrep  where he will answer questions any suburban driver has about the LCDC.

Rob has worked tirelessly to try and highlight problems in the suburban sectors with his work on London Taxi Radio, also launching Sector Magazine the suburbs first ever magazine and his monthly article in the badge.

So please join rob this Tuesday 16:00 on Periscope for #TalktotheLCDCsuburnanrep

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TfL Bend Over Backwards To Clear Name Of Uber In Knife Up Bottom Case.

In the past we've seen London Taxi photos plastered all over the media when publishing stories about criminal issues that in fact relate to Private hire drivers/operators/ vehicles. 

Some of the crimes are serious such as sexual assaults/rape and in more than one case, even murder.

Take last year when the majority of the press and TV news channels posted articles stating that Taxi and Private hire driver related sexual assaults, including rapes were up by 50%.

Not one paper mentioned the fact that their were zero allegations against Taxi drivers. 

Not once have TfLTPH took it upon itself to get the paper(s) or TV media to publish a correction and show that the article was nothing to do with a Taxi driver or related trade member.

And yet in the case of Kareem Worthington, TfLTPH have just bent over backwards to clear the name of their stakeholder Uber. 

The police are now saying that only after the arrest, court case and imprisonment of Worthington, did they discover that he'd lied about being an Uber driver. 

He was arrested driving a PHV with TfL roundels and had the Uber driver app on a smart phone. 

Apparently they never checked to see if he was on the TfL PH data base till after he was jailed -A very simple operation that anyone with a smart phone can do in minutes. 

This new information was then past on to the newspaper who have now published a correction to their original story. 

Do you think this would have happened if he had been driving a TX4 ???

Let's look at the facts :

Officers only realised he was lying..............." after he was jailed ". 

Can you really believe this?

Police arrested, the CPS charged and the courts jailed him , before realising his proper identity. Really ?

So from this, it's safe to assume he was working as an Uber driver, using someone else's car sporting TfL roundels and using the Uber app. Allegedly a surprisingly common occurrence. 

Perhaps TfL could explain more about the Uber driver arrested on Exhibition Road who mowed down pedestrians while driving Uber passengers in a Prius....funny how that news of that incident suddenly dried up!

Just more proof of the collusion between the illegal Private Hire App Uber and our wonderful licensing regulator (who appear to be looking after the reputation and public image of this company) 

Impartiality....don't make me laugh. 

TfL....Totally Failing Londoners. 

That's strange ! Didn't Leon the liar in City Hall swear blind Uber already had one 

AS IT’S A REQUIREMENT FOR A LICENSE?

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