London Bans Uber September 30
London’s 40,000 Uber drivers were left high and dry by today’s decision by authorities to proscribe Uber the American transport company. The city transport regulator TFL | Transport For London, in its pronouncement today said it will not renew Uber’s license for the upcoming 2018 business year. The tech giant’s current license with run out on September 30.
The city assessed Uber’s safety and security protocols and deemed it not good enough. TFL hinged its decision to ban the taxi company from operating in London on public safety and security. According to TFL, Uber does not provide all relevant information regarding its drivers background checks. TFL also accuse Uber for using a software - GreyBall, to block the regulator from monitoring Uber’s app. MET Police had described Uber safety standard as poor. MET statement goes further to say that Uber does not comply with regulatory obligations to provide comprehensive reports related to incidents - crime, involving its drivers.
Tom Elvidge, General Manager Uber London, made known Uber’s intention to contest the ban in court. An unrelated case in which the company appealed court’s decision to award two of its drivers employee status is coming up next week. It could mean an intriguing week for the Silicon Valley Giant.
Chief Executive of the $70 Billion company, Dara Khosrowshahi, who was brought in only recently to steady Uber’s ship which was sailing in treacherous waters of internal scandals and management incompetency, frantically resorted to addressing Londoners directly.
He tweeted in an attempt to endear the company to London populace “Dear London: we r far from perfect but we have 40k licensed drivers and 3.5mm Londoners depending on us. Pls work w/us to make things right,”
His appeal has garnered over 200,000 online responses in favor of the San Francisco based company. This is a straight collision between Uber riders and traditional Black Taxi operators in London. In their view Uber is aggressive and close to running them out of business. Again, Uber has inexperienced and unprofessional drivers who blast loud music all over the city. Uber customers on the other hand favor Uber service for being cheaper and much readily adapted to trending technology. Many Londoners are reeling from their city’s decision to dump 40,000 jobs.
This prohibition marks only a continuation of numerous bashing Uber has taken. Last year a UK Court ordered Uber to give its drivers employment status benefit ranging from minimum wage rate and sick pay. Actually the company has faced more woes in Europe than its native America. Two of the companies top managers were hauled in by police in France following a strike by commercial taxi drivers.
Citing unfair competition the services of the company was shut down by a court in Milan, Italy. it was another sad tale for the company in Germany. They were forced to pull out of Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Frankfort on a decision of a Frankfurt Court that pronounced that Uber drivers should be licensed as regular cab drivers. In Nigeria, the most populous African nation. It was a running battle with Lagos state Transport authority to regularize the operation of the company. The company quit operations in Denmark and Hungry too. Issues in some of the listed areas has been regularized and Uber had to adapt to related changes.
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