EXCLUSIVE : Fake News From The LTDA...Surely Not...by Jim Thomas

Under the Heading FAKE NEWS The Rumour Mill, the LTDA have put out an article claiming that certain ill-informed and gossip-based websites are putting out posts about e-Taxis that are complete nonsense. 

The article they are referring to (albeit unnamed) is more likely to be (as we haven't seen it anywhere else), the post which appeared in Taxi Leaks news blog that was headed:  

Exclusive....Another Done Deal For London Taxis, From The Same Mob That Bought You Rear Fitted Credit Card Readers?

https://taxileaks.blogspot.com/2018/07/exclusiveanother-done-deal-from-same.html

So far nothing fake or misleading here!

They say the so called article appeared first on some ill- informed and gossip-based websites before spreading to Twitter. This is not correct as the information appeared first on Twitter then, after we'd checked it out, appeared in Taxi Leaks!

As proof of the so called uninformed fake news gossip, the LTDA offer the explanation that the signage was authorised by the Department of Transport for Manchester City Council.

As evidence of the fakeness of the post they posted 3 images of which two they say, show signage that they claim were intended for Manchester Council. 

Our original article was based on receipt of a letter from the DfT which stated :

Letter reads:-

Thank you for your email to the Department of Transport of 22 July regarding electric Taxis. This passed to the traffic and technology division and I have been asked to reply.

I can confirm that signs have been approved for use by Transport for London.

See letter below. 

http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-4593.pdf

Yours sincerely

Fiona O'Neal

In the images sent to us, you can clearly see the TfL Surface Transport logo in the bottom right hand corner. 

As can be clearly seen, these signs were authorised by the DfT specificly for Transport for London and carry TfL's logo and address in the bottom right hand corner of the illustrations

The logos clearly marked out on the DFT PDF, appear to have been omitted from the images which appear in Taxi !

No only does it carry the TfL logo, it also has their address on each sign, 197 Blackfriars Road. 

Now unless we are mistaken, that's definitely not the address of Manchester City Council.....over to you Steve???

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : 

Was this an attempt to blacken the good name and reputation of Taxi Leaks?

Or was this an attempt to cover up the news from a whistleblower that the LTDA were pushing for e-Taxis only at the Bank Junction and Tottenham Court Road?

More bad press on its way for the general secretary of the LTDA in the pipe line... This appeared earlier on the ITA Twitter feed:

One of the proposals in the Task & Finish Group is it asks the Government to review the case for restricting the number of hours Taxi and PH drivers may drive.

Steve McNamara is an advisor to this group.

Why is he keeping this information to himself?

We need to know! And we need to know now!

Good luck paying for your new overpriced e-Taxi, if that particular proposal goes through.

No wonder Mr McNamara isn't happy with social media. 

Good luck explaining this away as fake news!

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Uber Rival Ola has hired the former Chief Operating Officer of Google Europe to run its UK

Uber's latest UK challenger, Ola is the market leader in India's ride-hailing market with a service including taxis, luxury cars and even rickshaws. It is set to launch in South Wales and Manchester later this year.

Both Legg's technical and business credentials will serve Ola well when it comes to competitive strategies in the evolved British transportation market. 

Before embarking on a corporate career, Legg was a Captain in the British Army’s Royal Engineers for 10 years.

He joins from digital advertising company AdParlor.

Can’t wait for TfL to licence London’s electric rickshaws and then see them operate under the Uber or Ola banner. 

The Lycra clad happy clappers will lap up the zero emission reichshaw bikes which are turning London into a virtual third world City 

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Mike Brown's TfL And The Mayor Give Uber 1,000 Strikes And Your Out With 14 Months To Go.

Story we seen today on Twitter that Katers Douk left a wallet in an Uber Car. Afte agreeing to bring it back, the drive late text saying he would hold on to the wallet unless a sum of £30 was paid. 

The uber account holder contacting Uber support by email but was then given the run around, with Uber saying the issue should be sorted using the in app support team. 

But it seems the in app support team are not listening to complaints today!

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Uber investor Bradley Tusk Says Dara Khosrowshahi's kinder, gentler approach Is Makibg Uber Apoear Weak

Uber CEO Dara KhosrowshahiUber

 • Regulation critic Bradley Tusk, who is also an Uber shareholder, has some strong opinions on New York's new regulations that cap the number of ride-share drivers.

 • He believes that Uber's kinder, gentler approach these days could be interpreted as weakness by Uber's traditional rivals.

 • But an Uber insider tells us that times have changed, and Uber's view on its former rivals has changed with them.

Political-campaigner-turned-regulation-critic Bradley Tusk -who is also an Uber shareholder - has some unsolicited advice for Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Uber's kinder, gentler image isn't a good thing when it comes to a "bare knuckle fight" with would-be regulators who want to limit Uber's business.

"Effectively, if you want a CEO who is chosen because he is calm and smooth and avoids conflict at all costs, that may work really well in certain parts of the business. But when it comes to a sort of bare knuckle fight with the city council, you really have no chance at all," Tusk tells Business Insider.

Tusk's comments are in response to new rules approved earlier this week in New York, when Mayor de Blasio achieved something he had been wanting to do for three years: limiting the number of ride-sharing cars operating in the city.

Tusk's viewpoint poses interesting questions for tech startups fighting incumbents in heavily regulated industries.

Is there still a time and place for Silicon Valley's famous resistance to government regulations? The most extreme example of that attitude is Uber's brash former CEO Travis Kalanick, who fought them with gusto. But companies like Airbnb, FanDuel, Bird, and the bevy of self-driving car companies are all having their own stand-offs with city and state regulators. And in the years before Kalanick's spectacular fall from grace, he was widely praised in the Valley for his tactics in taking on the old-school incumbents...and winning.

In fact, in 2015 de Blasio tried to do this same thing, and limit the number of ride share drivers. But Uber engaged in an all-out assault of protests that was so powerful, it became the blueprint for how tech upstarts could combat would-be regulators.

It also catapulted the take-no-prisoners political operative who orchestrated Uber's counter-regulation campaign, Tusk, into a sought-after star helping other tech upstarts fight regulators.

Bradley TuskGetty 

Tusk was paid in Uber stock to help Kalanick navigate New York's notoriously thick taxi regulations in those earlier days. Those shares of Uber, paid in lieu of Tusk Strategies' usual fees, were believed to be worth $100 million in 2017.

Tusk cashed out some of his Uber shares earlier this year, when SoftBank invested in the company and bought up equity from existing shareholders. However, he still owns a significant chunk of shares in Uber, he said.

But he says he's never met Khosrowshahi, much less advised him.

Still, he has some advice for Uber's current CEO.

"What I would say to him: there's a lot of areas where a kinder, gentler approach makes sense. But taxi is a cartel. Uber only exists because Travis and team were tough enough to take them on and fight them tooth and nail in every city in the United States," Tusk said.

"And if you don't do that, they are going to re-emerge," he warned. "They didn't become nicer people or kinder people. Or, just because you have a better reputation than Travis, they are all of a sudden going to treat you differently. More likely they are going to see you as weak and they are going to come after you."

Do nice guys finish last?

And yet, just because tough tactics worked in the past doesn't mean they are necessary for the future, argues a person familiar with Uber's New York operations, who requested anonymity to discuss the company's internal deliberations on this latest city council ruling.

"A lot has changed since 2015 in terms of driver and rider sentiment and how they feel about Uber has declined significantly. If this was a political campaign, Uber doesn't have a base anymore," this person said, adding that Uber has suffered a 30%-plus drop in reputation, even among riders.

That drop would have "weakened" the company's ability to rally protesters, should they have tried a repeat of the tactics used in 2015.

Also, under Khosrowshahi, Uber doesn't view the taxi industry as the all-out enemy anymore, this person said.

The company particularly has sympathy for the the drivers themselves hurt by the rise of ride-sharing, the person said. Six of them have committed suicide in New York, blaming Uber for destroying their livelihoods.

Plus executives believe that Uber, under Khosrowshahi, has won back the good graces of regulators in London and Buenos Aires, and that this is a better strategy than campaigning against them in the long-term.

Internally at Uber, executives nowadays didn't see much of a threat to their long-term business by capping the number of ride sharing vehicles on the road at current levels in New York for a year, this person said. They don't believe that New York will become a model for other cities instituting caps, as Tusk warns.

Meanwhile, even if Uber has moved on, Tusk has no shortage of takers that want his brand of fight. He's currently working with electric scooter rental company Bird and daily fantasy sports firm FanDuel.

Source : ukbusinessInsider.com

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The London Electrical Cab made its debut more than 120 years ago.

In August 2017, London’s first hybrid black cabs hit the streets ahead of new legislation that came into effect this year, requiring all new cabs to be ‘zero emissions capable’. The TX can operate for around 70 miles on battery power alone, with a petrol range extender allowing it to clock up around 400 miles before refuelling. But London’s very first electric cabs actually came into service exactly 120 years earlier.

"Mr W H Preece inaugurated a service of electrical cabs which are to ply for hire in the streets of London in competition with the ordinary hackney carriages," wrote The Engineer in August 1897. "Thirteen of these cabs are now ready for work, and a staff of drivers have been instructed in the use of them. 

The cabs will be let out by the proprietors, the London Electrical Cab Company, Limited, just at the same rate and in the same manner as the London cabs. The ‘cabbies’ are, we are informed, quite enthusiastic about the new vehicle."

The London Electrical Cab – also commonly known as the ‘Hummingbird’ due to its sound, or the ‘Bersey Taxi’ after its young designer – first took to the streets of the capital on August 19 1897. Inventor Walter Charles Bersey was just 23 at the time, but had been designing and patenting electric vehicles for several years already. According to our predecessors, his creation was intended to mimic the appearance of the horse-drawn taxis of the day.

"The vehicle resembles very closely a horseless and shaftless coupé. It is carried on four wooden solid rubber-tired wheels. There is ample space for the coachmen. The accommodation within is luxurious. The propelling machinery consists of a 8-horse power Johnson-Lundell motor, with double wound armature and fields, so that by the use of a suitable switch or controller a variety of speeds can be obtained."

"The current is supplied by 40 EPS traction type cells, having a capacity of 170 ampere hours when discharged at a rate of 30 amperes. The cabs can thus travel between thirty and thirty-five miles per charge."

The vehicle had speed settings of three, seven and nine miles per hour, controlled by a lever at the side of the driver’s box. A powerful footbrake that broke the electrical circuit could also be applied, halting the vehicle in short order. This was one of four key conditions under which taxis were granted licenses by Scotland Yard, with carriages also required to be capable of turning in small spaces and climbing central London’s steepest ascent of the time, Savoy Hill.

The batteries, which weighed some 14 cwt (over 700 kg), were hung from springs underneath the vehicle and could be swapped out at Bersey’s Lambeth station using a system of hydraulic lifts. This was undoubtedly restrictive, and it was planned at the time to introduce other stations throughout London where the batteries could be charged and swapped. Though Bersey’s company claimed cab drivers welcomed the vehicle, it appears its introduction was not received as warmly from all quarters, as the following passage from a September 1897 edition of The Engineer illustrates.

"Mr. Walter C Bersey, the general manager of the London Electrical Cab Company, Ltd., has written to the general secretary of the London Cab Trade Council, saying that he fails to see how it can be contended that the introduction of electrical cabs can be against the interests of the cabdrivers. He says he has spoken to hundreds of cabmen on the subject, and has always understood they were most anxious for the change, as it would shorten their hours by saving the time wasted in changing horses, and also save them the unpleasantness of frequently having to drive tired and undesirable horses."

Despite Bersey’s protestations, the vehicle never really took off, with the fleet only reaching a peak of around 75 units. The cab’s two-tonne weight caused huge wear on the tyres which led to noise and vibrations escalating significantly after six months of use. Bersey’s company lost £6,200 in the first year of operation, and the business was forced to close in 1899, the vehicles disappearing from London’s streets just two years after making their debut.

Source : the engineer.co.uk

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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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