Will Ola Out Uber, Uber? Woman on way to Kempegowda International Airport forced to strip, pose for pictures by Ola cabbie

A traumatic ride: 

Keep quiet or my friends will gang rape you’ 

26-year-old had booked the cab at 2 am as she had to fly to Mumbai; driver arrested after she mailed a complaint to the Commissioner 

A 26-year-old city-based architect had a traumatic experience enroute to the airport after her Ola cab driver took a detour, held her hostage, molested and took pictures of her in the car in the early hours of June 1. The woman was travelling alone in the cab from her residence in JB Nagar to the airport to catch an early morning flight to Mumbai. Based on her complaint, the driver, V Arun (28), has been arrested and his cab seized. 

The woman said in her complaint that she had booked the Ola cab at around 2 am. Once on the road, she found that the driver had taken a different route. When she enquired, he claimed it would be faster and free of toll. 

Near the airport, when she found that he had taken a secluded road and asked him to turn around. But the driver stopped the car, locked the doors and molested her. When she put up a fight, he threatened to call a group of men and get her raped. He also snatched her phone and threated to kill her if she screamed for help, the woman said in her complaint. 

The driver has been arrested and the cab seized. I spoke with the victim after the arrest. She had mailed us the complaint

Seemanth Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (East)

A police officer investigating the case said: "The accused reportedly asked her to strip as he wanted her pictures. He tried to strangle her when she refused. Fearing for her life, the woman complied and gave him the photos he wanted. He clicked the pictures on her phone and shared it through WhatsApp to his phone number." 

The accused told her he was leaving for Dubai the very next day, a claim that proved to be false. After much begging on her part, he dropped her off at the airport around 3 am. He threatened to post her pictures on social media if she complained. 

After the incident, the woman said she took the flight to Mumbai. In the meantime, the accused had called her twice after which she blocked his number. 

"After reaching Mumbai, she mailed her complaint to the city police commissioner. The complaint was then transferred to the jurisdictional JB Nagar police station for further action," said the officer. 

The car used in the crime has been seized and parked at the Jeevan Bima Nagar police station after the driver’s arrest

The woman managed to get the driver’s details through the OlaCabs application and had attached it along with her complaint. This helped the police arrest him within a few hours of the complaint. The JB Nagar police also sought help from the cyber crime police to check if he had shared the photos with anybody else. 

"The driver has been arrested and the cab has been seized. I personally spoke to the victim after the arrest and updated her on the progress of the case. The woman had mailed us the complaint. A case in this regard has been registered by the jurisdictional JB Nagar police," Seemanth Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (East) told BM. 

The JB Nagar police has registered a case of assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe (IPC 354B), voyeurism (IPC 354C), assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC 354), attempt to murder (IPC 307), putting person in fear of death (IPC 387), wrongful confinement (IPC 342). The IT Act of 2000 has also been invoked. 

When BM reached out to Ola for its comments on the incident, a spokesperson said: "We regret the unfortunate experience the customer had during the ride. We have zero tolerance for such incidents and the driver has been blacklisted from the platform as an immediate action upon receiving the complaint. Safety of customers is our top priority and we are extending our full support to the police authorities in their investigation." 

Gang Rape And Murder By Ola Drivers In Kolkata Raises Alarm On Safety Of App-Based Minicabs Again

    

As we get into a lull and begin to believe that the world is becoming saner and calmer, things end up becoming messier and murkier. In the most recent and rather appalling incident – two Ola drivers in Kolkata have gangraped and strangled to death a 12-year-old girl. Reports suggest that the girl’s body was thrown over a bridge.

A tweet by ANI News said that the two cab drivers have been arrested:

Kolkata: 2 cab drivers arrested for allegedly gang-raping and killing a 12-yr-old girl, body recovered.

-- ANI (@ANI_news) August 31, 2016

A report by CNN-News18 said that the accused have been arrested and they even confessed to picking up the girl from the footpath when they were drunk. The drivers told the police that they were looking for some ‘merriment’ and after killing the girl, the drivers - Shankar Shaw and Guddu Singh - threw her body into the canal below Park Circus Flyover.

Reacting to the news, Ola immediately issued a statement. However, it called the rape and murder a case of "alleged misbehaviour". It said:

We are saddened by the reports of the alleged misbehaviour of a driver in Kolkata. On preliminary identification of the cab details shared by authorities, we have suspended the account associated with this cab with immediate effect. As per our records, this incident has not occurred while on the Ola platform. We will work with the authorities to share any information that will help support their investigation.

This isn’t the first time that such a report has been filed against an Ola or Uber driver. In December last year, a woman passenger was raped by an Ola driver in Delhi who even threatened to kill the woman if she told anyone.

In May this year, a Belgian national was molested by an Ola driver in Delhi. And how can anyone forget the incident where an Uber driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, raped a woman in Delhi in December 2014.

Today, with the growing convenience that cab aggregators provide, news of this magnitude again brings to question the safety and security of passengers, especially women. It is interesting to note that a few months back, the cab aggregators and the government authorities were at loggerheads for some of the rules the government had imposed.

The state governments had requested for complete police verification of every driver on the Ola and Uber platforms. One of the main reasons for this was to ensure women’s safety. However, such incidents clearly show that much more efforts need to be put into the safety aspect. According to the new rules, every cab is required to have a panic button, but little has been said on the response time in dire situations and cases like these.

Source : YourStory.com, ITA.

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT....

Looks like it's true that Ola will outdo Uber. I thought they were talking about the amount of booking, but after a little digging it looks like Ola will out Uber in the realms of UberRape and murder!

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New York City Council Capped The Number Of Ubers Allowed On City Streets

The New York City Council just passed the bill to cap the number of Uber drivers for 12 months, along with four other bills. An overwhelming majority of the City Council’s 51 council members voted in favor of the bills.

The City’s 12-month pause on new vehicle licenses will threaten one of the few reliable transportation options while doing nothing to fix the subways or ease congestion. We take the Speaker at his word that the pause is not intended to reduce service for New Yorkers and we trust that he will hold the TLC accountable, ensuring that no New Yorker is left stranded. In the meantime, Uber will do whatever it takes to keep up with growing demand and we will not stop working with city and state leaders, including Speaker Johnson, to pass real solutions like comprehensive congestion pricing.

UBER-CONGESTED. The New York City Council is expected to vote on setting a cap on all new Uber vehicles on Wednesday. The bill, if it passes, would halt the issue of any new licenses for any new ride-hailing service drivers for a 12 month period. Several outlets have reported that the City Council is likely to vote in favor of the bill. If the vote goes as predicted, the outcome could be a boon to drivers and, as the New York Times notes, "a major blow" to the ride sharing service.

This is the first of several bills on which the City Council will vote in rapid succession. Others will decide a similar fate for other ride-hail apps like Lyft and Juno; another would establish a minimum pay rate (effectively a minimum wage) that ride-hail companies must pay its drivers operating in NYC.

DECONGESTING NYC. These bills are a response to New York City’s increasingly congested streets, for a number of people, including leaders at the city’s public transportation authority, the MTA, have largely blamed Uber and its ilk. According to Bloomberg, the use of app-based ride services has skyrocketed in the last couple of years -- its drivers now represent "more than half of all for-hire cars on the road" in New York. Meanwhile, the number of iconic yellow cabs is virtually unchanged in the same period of time, thanks to a strict (and costly) medallion system.

By limiting the number of ride-hailing service drivers, the existing drivers would be able to complete more trips, and make more money in the process.

Predictably, Uber is not happy about New York City Council’s plans. "A 12-month pause on new for-hire vehicle licenses will leave New Yorkers stranded while doing nothing to prevent congestion, fix the subways and help struggling taxi medallion owners," an Uber spokesperson told the New York Times.

UBER-WORKED. In bringing this series of bills to the City Council, council-members hope to create a more sustainable job market for ride-hail app drivers. As the number of ride-hail drivers on the roads has risen, many have started to buckle under the economic difficulties of the situation. Most lack benefits like a 401K or health insurance. Low wages are rampant --a new report found that Uber and Lyft drivers in the U.S. only make a median profit (factoring in insurance, maintenance, repairs, and gas) of $8.55 per hour -- which is, in New York City, well below the minimum wage set by the state. The situation has become so grim for some that six taxi drivers have taken their own lives in New York City alone, according to the New York Times.

Despite the tough situation for drivers, Uber has continued to grow. The company had a very healthy first quarter of this year, raking in a $2.46 billion profit, according to the Wall Street Journal. There are rumors that Uber might go public some time next year. A driver cap in the biggest city in the U.S. could put that plan in jeopardy.

A 12-month ban on new licenses isn’t a death knell for the company, not by a long shot. But the cap might buy legislators some more time to study the effect the ride hailing industry has been having on the city, and make sure it’s working for everyone.

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Uber is struggling in the UK. Can India's Ola do things differently?

India’s largest ride-sharing service, Ola, is coming to Britain. It’s news that will make not just Uber sit up and pay attention.

For Uber, it’s another direct rival. The US company, marred in the UK by controversies and court cases, is trying to rebuild its reputation in UK after after Transport for London (TfL) first withdrew its licence to operate in the city and then put it on notice by only issuing it with a probationary short-term licence.

Now Uber and the UK’s plethora of minicab firms find themselves cautiously eyeing a fresh competitor, and – once again – demand on it playing by the rules.

"Ola says that it is committed to raising safety standards in the UK’s private hire industry from the get go, unlike Uber," says Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association. With Uber’s reputation harmed, "Ola will be hoping to establish itself as a more ethical alternative," adds Lauren Foye, an analyst at Juniper Research.

Cautious about diving straight into London traffic - not least in light of all the issues Uber faced in recent years, the Indian company has chosen South Wales and Greater Manchester as pilot areas. An Ola spokesperson says the decision was based on "positive engagement" with the local authorities. Analysts, however, put it quite bluntly: rather than enter the fray in locations where ride-sharing is being scrutinised from a legal perspective, Ola is looking to get a foothold in areas yet to be significantly disrupted by the gig economy.

So who is Ola? Backed by SoftBank, the company has had its fair share or problems in its native India. There have been reports of drivers engaging in unethical and at times criminal behaviour, while Ola itself has been accused of exploiting its drivers, by first offering incentives to sign up and then cutting earnings later. It’s enough of a track record to make UK consumers wary, says Foye. "To address this, Ola will need to impose stringent checks on its drivers, and could look at features to make customers feel safer, such as panic buttons or CCTV equipment," she adds.

A major challenge to succeed with customers and to hire drivers will be brand recognition. "It is not known," says Yugal Joshi from Everest Group, a research firm. "[It will need] a meaningful marketing blitz around its entry, create incentives for drivers, work with regulators to better understand the constructs, and understand the taxi habits of UK passengers," he adds. What it shouldn’t do is market taxis as an alternative to other modes of transport, as it does in India. Instead, Joshi argues, it should make it essential for British commuters.

That Uber and licensed cabs have to make space for a newcomer isn’t a total surprise – quite the opposite. "The demand for that type of (sharing) mobility is certainly there, and I certainly believe that transportation as a service is going to grow," says Egil Juliussen, an analyst at IHS Markit. Uber, Ola and a few other major ride-sharing players such as Lyft and China’s Didi are just the beginning. The next step will be, inevitably, driverless cars – and that will at least remove the problem of underpaid or unethical and abusive drivers.

Pilot projects using driverless vehicles are growing in number, and Waymo, GM, Uber and Lyft are set to bring them to our streets in just a few years’ time. This, in turn, will make the cost of sharing mobility plummet, driving up demand and slowly but surely killing car ownership. "The peak in terms of car ownership will come very, very soon," Juliussen predicts.

For now, passengers will have to share their cab with a driver – and many UK drivers may soon find themselves working for an Indian firm. The UK, Ola’s spokesperson says, "marks a natural but significant next chapter in our international expansion," – after its expansion into Australia in January this year. The UK, the spokesperson adds, is "crying out for a responsible, new competitive player".

Ola will offer British passengers something different from Uber. And it has grand plans. Greater Manchester and Wales are "only the beginning", the spokesperson adds.

Source : Wired 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT:

We received this email today from a driver. Name and badge number have been reserved by us.

            

Morning Taxileaks,

   I'm a London Cabby - only found your website this morning - another cabby recommended it. I read the article in TAXI magazine yesterday about sueing Uber, and could not believe what I was reading. Mishcon de Reya, the legal firm that is supposed to be putting the case together, are the most bent legal firm in London !! Private Eye magazine have spent the last decade trying to uncover some of the corruption and cronyism at Mishcon. They are the Establishment cover-up legal firm of choice !!

     As soon as I read the article, I stopped the cab and ran into the Private Eye office (6 Carlisle St Soho) - they said they would dig out some of their more recent articles about Mishcon.

     I assume Uber have already agreed to pay them to lose the case, or Mishcon may already know it's not actually possible to win the case. Either way, it's another stitch-up.

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PH Operator Caught Touting On Street, Using Four Operatives Outside The Royal Albert Hall.

Yesterday afternoon, we witnessed four males giving out leaflets with s voucher offering FREE TAXIS to people around the Royal Albert Hall. The men were all wearing a T-shirt advertising Via-van. 

We asked TfL on Twitter, are Via Van a licensed operator and if this was acceptable and this was their reply: 

Yes Via Van is a licensed private hire operator what you witnessed was far from acceptable please report all you saw and heard to us by using tfl.gov.uk/tph.report.

Below is a video of just one of four of them, they were there for over half an hour and must have handed out hundreds of vouchers to people going into the Albert hall, he has the via van logo on his shirt.

    

He was standing right beside the Albert hall’s licensed taxi rank shouting repeatedly "free taxi". It’s blatant touting and misleading the public (they don’t supply taxis)

If TfL let them get away this what’s to stop other minicab firms doing this at major taxi ranks in London?

Via Vans licence should be immediately revoked for touting in a public place. 

TfL say they have passed this on to compliance but also stress that should you see this happening, you should use the form on tfl.gov.uk/tph.report. to report. 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

TfL haven’t got a great track record with this kind of touting offence. Uber were doing the same thing outside the Evening Standard Awards at tobacco doc. Many drivers took photos and complained but nothing happened.

Also, while John Mason was Director of TPH a private hire company was giving passengers free rides home from ranks in central London. The company played advertising videos to the passengers on rout. Mason refused to do anything about it. 

We must contact our orgs and make sure this corporate touting is followed up by TfL and isn't swept under the carpet. 

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TfL under fire for signing 'amazing' number of non-disclosure agreements with departing staff

Transport for London (TfL) has been criticised for signing more than 800 "gagging" agreements with departing members of staff in one year.

TfL signed 848 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) – a legal contract that binds former employers to confidentiality restrictions – during the course of 2016 to 2017, the latest year for which data is available. That year, 2,100 members of staff left TfL, meaning NDA's were levied on 40 per cent of the employees that left.

London Assembly member Caroline Pidegon, who asked Khan about the NDAs, said she was "amazed" at the numbers.

“While non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality clauses can have a role in protecting commercially sensitive information, I am amazed that TfL considers such agreements to be necessary for over 40 per cent of their departing staff," she said.

“TfL needs to justify this high level of agreements and reassure the travelling public that they are not gagging former staff who should have every right to comment on an organisation they once worked for.”

A TfL spokesperson said: “We are delivering huge savings in our operating costs while delivering safe, reliable and affordable transport services and one of the biggest programmes of capital investment anywhere in the world.

"Part of this involves merging functions and reducing management layers enabling net savings of over £500m over the course of our five-year business plan and recurring savings every year thereafter. This proactive management of cost is helping us turn an operating deficit into a surplus over this period.”

In May the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched a review into senior staff severance pay after TfL admitted spending £50m on departing staff over the past year.

Anyone earning over £100,000 now has to have their pay packet signed off by Khan.

The transport body has been tasked with shedding management layers and cutting its reliance on agency workers as part of a cost-cutting drive.

Among the big earners at TfL are commissioner Mike Brown, whose total remuneration for the year was £374,959, and Crossrail boss Andrew Wolstenholme, who collected £736,157.

Last month Khan sparked criticised after he refused to sit on TfL's remuneration committee to have oversight of the generous payouts, arguing that the launching of the review made it unnecessary.

Previous mayors Ken Livingstone and Johnson both sat on the committee – Livingstone as chair throughout his time on the board and Johnson as a member during his time as mayor.

Source : CityAM

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Cabbie Group Action : Are we being led down the wrong valley to protect Mike Brown's TfL ?

When Tennyson penned the searing words about the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade, he was – like the poet laureate’s angry readers – demanding answers to one of the most pressing questions of the day: who/what led to the slaughter. 

Capt Nolan was the messenger who conveyed Lord Raglan’s written orders to Lord Lucan,

But, Captain Louis Nolan thought he was a battle tactician and led the charge down the wrong valley.  Ring any bells here???

Funny, the man who thought the three drivers taking Uber to court, (who eventually settled out of court), were wasting their time has suddenly had a changed of mind !!!

Any bells ringing yet. 

Try this one: No action can be taken against Mike Brown’s TfL while the case against Uber is running because it might prejudiced the case....in the eventuality of Uber settling out of court, probably for a lot less than the £500m stated this morning, no case against TfL would be viable. 

Are we being led down the wrong valley to protect TfL ?

TfL are the guilty party here as they allowed Uber to continue to operate for six years knowing that it was the driver who accepted the booking (admitted in court), Uber’s  operation was illegal ? 

Another question you might like an answer to before signing up for this action...Uber made Deloitte sign a non disclosure agreement over their second report ? 

You can’t see it, even the LTDA can’t see it ?

TfL cannot themselves dissect it ?

People are rushing in to sign up but wouldn’t it be a good idea to take some form of legal advice first?

Looking at the FAQ's : If you decide this action’s not for you after you’ve initially committed, it may incur a cost ?

Who large a cost????

Who remembers this email?

It is not about 'loss of earnings' - it's about recovering what was stolen from us.

Our Group Litigation should be for £1.5bn.

It was announced on Wednesday that this 'unelected' group would sue for £1bn.

Now it's down to £0.5bn.

We should be suing TfL. We are charging down the wrong valley. 

Let’s do the maths:

It's not rocket science.

CwP or Ernst &Young would do it this way.

As a professional with own vehicle (or rented) a professional is recognised in these matters as at £30 ph.

They'll gauge that at "gentleman's hours"; 40 hours pw.

x 52 weeks

× 6 years.

Then gauge how much work Uber has done in London (Uber say 2m pw)

We would judge this to be 40% (LTDA say 30%).

Whichever it is, Uber owe every driver that percentage.

The sums come out around £1.5bn (£1.7bn).

Every Taxi driver who was badged for those six years should receive £70k+

This is NOT loss of earnings!

Some drivers didn't lose earnings. They worked longer hours and lost valuable family time causing stress, having to work 40% longer. Some lost houses, wives, their kids once a fortnight, and some their lives.

Many have left the trade because of the hardship!

PH, garages, apps, etc., must take a different suit to ours. For damage to their livelihood and business and shouldn’t be included in any claim made by the drivers. 

Is the reason McNamara wants to sue Uber, so that it will be settled out of court for a great deal less! And to protect TfL ?

Is he using the other Orgs to give himself legitimacy.

News this morning from the  ITA, who have said, they will take an injunction against this suit, if need be!

WE SHOULD BE SUING TFL!

TAXI LEAKS EXTEA BIT : from LTR’s Sean Paul Day

Cabbies didn’t study The Knowledge of London for three years to operate on an equal playing field.

The LTDA should be calling on Transport for London to reinstate the demarcation between taxis and PH, and drivers should be recompensed for losses and damages incurred as a result of Über’s  operation being licensed illegally. 

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Nissan e-NV200 Taxi Saves Fleets So Much Cash That It’s Like Getting A License To Print Money

British taxi company C&C Taxi from St. Austell was already featured by Nissan as one of the LEAF and e-NV200 pioneers. 

Now, it turns out that by switching to EVs, C&C acquired a license to print money (no, not really), saving over €79,000 in 18 months on fleet costs.

According to the press release, the annual savings per car on fuel alone in the UK stands at €11,374 (£8,500) or over $12,000.

To make savings like that you need to drive a lot, and to drive a lot you need to charge a lot, and to charge a lot you need to do it fast so C&C installed two DC quick chargers – one at its office and one in an industrial estate. The result is 77,000 miles (123,000 km) in just 12 months for one of the cars, which translates to some 6,400 miles (10,250 km) a month!

Neither C&C Taxi nor Nissan provided the total payback period for the cars (including fast chargers) compared to conventional cars, which maybe would convince more taxi companies to switch to EVs.

Nissan’s Director of Electric Vehicles, Jean Pierre Diernaz explains the significance of C&C’s experience, commenting:

“C&C Taxis proves once again that Nissan electric vehicles work extremely well as taxis with huge cost savings for the business and big benefits to CO₂ emissions and air quality. These cars work hard, averaging 40 taxi fares and 240 km (150 miles) per day with zero reliability issues. It just works!”

C&C Taxi Fleet Manager Mark Richards commented:

“We have had such a positive experience with our Nissan LEAF fleet, even the drivers, who were anxious to start with are now very happy to drive a 100 percent electric car. They tell us a 10 hour shift is less tiring with an EV and the e-NV200 we have now means we can extend that experience to the drivers who were previously in diesel minibuses.”

“People often say that electric cars are just for cities, but we are in one of the most beautiful and rural counties of England with no cities or even motorways and they are working amazingly well for us. We are a family owned business and this is not a vanity project, this is something that is that is saving us money and getting us extra business.”

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