Letter sent to London Assembly members Caroline Pigdeon, Valerie Shawcross, plus LCDC, RMT, LTDA, UCG, The Cab Driver Newspaper and The Globe newspaper.
There are several problems with Uber and dealing with them by simply limiting the number of private hire licenses without any other supplementary restrictions will probably kill the licensed Taxi trade.
For example if the number of PH licenses was just capped (reduced from say 80,000 to 50,000), there would be several problems. TfL could stop\restrict new applications, but what about the existing ones?
They cant simply tell people that are using their currently licence they can no longer continue to work. The only viable way would be, as people leave the trade not to allow them to be replaced. This could in theory take a few years.
If TfL were successful in reducing the numbers to 50,000 this would have no impact on Uber as they would only need 10,000 to 15,000 drivers for their model to work. Take a trip to central London on any Friday or Saturday night and you will notice all the Toyota Prius’s parked up waiting for jobs from Uber.
It might also cause drivers and companies to raise the fares in the Private Hire sector, due to short falls which Uber do not hesitate in taking advantage of e.g. their surge demand pricing.
There is however a realistic solution to this matter .
1/ Restrict the total number of PH drivers and let them fall to the required level through natural losses.
2/ Restrict the number of drivers allowed to work under a single operator’s license. For example Addison lee had approximately 5000 drivers in their heyday, so perhaps their licence could be the highest available, i.e. for 5000 cars.
(With a limited number like this, Uber's model would not work in London).
The tier structure could be a couple of licenses available at 5000 vehicles, with a few hundred at 100 and many at 50.
This kind of limitation has been placed on the market before by the government in the mobile telecommunications market with restrictions been placed on the 4g market so its nothing new.
3/ The operator's licenses cannot be combined and used by the same or related company, or shared electronically via an app.
4/ Drivers have to be registered with TfL. Then TfL would issue a certificate for that driver displaying a picture of the driver and the company they work for plus the registration of the vehicle.
TfL should be given 2 weeks to process and run rudimentary background checks. A fee should be charged to the driver for any changes being made to the certificate, e.g. £200 and the driver should not be allowed to work until they have the complete certificate in their possession.
This would stop companies using apps from saying they have 5000 drivers in the day then a different 5000 drivers at night and the photo would also stop PH driver's from letting other people use their licence. The fee would allow TfL to cover their costs and make them a profit.
5/ If the private hire driver does not have certificate in vehicle if stopped by and enforcement team an immediate check should be made to see if it is indeed the correct driver in the vehicle and the driver should be suspended for failing to comply with the regulations and if happens a few times, the PH driver's licence should be revoked
6/ Due to people applying from various countries around the world, the industry is currently letting in people where no background checks are possible. It is currently possible for undesirable people to get in to the trade.
I would suggest that PH licenses are only given to those people that have been in the country for 5 to 7 years. In the Taxi trade if someone has a criminal record they can be stopped from doing the Knowledge for up to 7 years, i.e. they have to be serious conviction free for that amount of time.
So it would be safer to be on the side of caution and have the same restriction in place for those that cannot be checked.
There are of course other issues
Uber Breaking laws:
The Definition of Hailing e.g. electronic hailing.
Bookings not actually being made i.e. address start and finish destination and price given at time of booking.
No customer help line for complaints.
Drivers working in London from all over the country.
Parking and congestion especially at night time.
Touting for business and harassing the public
causing congestion
False documentation and illegal immigrants working using other peoples licenses
Poor English
Fraud e.g. Uber accounts being hacked and customers being charged for journeys they have not made
Taxi revenues being sent abroad.
And this list is by no means complete.
If you have any queries regarding this, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
Colin Corcoran
West London Knowledge School.
