(Reuters) - They have been the kings of the British capital's roads for over a century but now the often opinionated drivers of London's iconic black taxi cabs are battling a high-technology rival that threatens their dominance.
In their sights is Uber Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based company whose application lets people summon rides at the touch of a smartphone button and uses satellite navigation to calculate the distance for fares.
The drivers of black taxis say Uber, backed by investors such as Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Google (GOOGL.O), is being used as a taximeter and thus contravenes a 1998 British law reserving the right to use a meter for licensed black taxis.
Uber says the application used by their drivers complies with all local regulations and that they are being targeted because of their success in winning customers.
A variety of apps are available for summoning both black cabs - bulbous, purpose-built vehicles which offer a roomier passenger compartment than most normal cars - and unmetered private-hire cars known as minicabs.
But the power of Uber's growing popularity of its app has rattled the black cab drivers that they have pushed London's transport regulator TfL, to ask the High Court to rule on the legality of such applications.
They also plan to converge near Trafalgar Square on June 11 for a protest that will paralyse central London, following strikes and other actions by drivers in cities such as Paris and Milan.
TAXI WARS?
"We understand it's a competitive market place, but they're not playing by the rules," Jim, a taxi driver of over 30 years, told Reuters during a coffee break in the financial district. "We're fighting for our livelihoods here. No one's going to take it lying down."
Behind the debate over what constitutes a taximeter, Uber has touched a raw nerve in London because it brings home the threat to one of the city's most visible trades, from technological advances.
Taximeter?
Uber provides an application for its drivers which calculates the cost of each journey by monitoring the distance and time travelled. The RMT, London taxi-drivers' union plus other representative groups say this amounts to a taximeter and that the regulator, Transport for London (TfL), is failing to enforce its own rules with a company that has powerful investors.
"TfL is scared by Uber’s big-money backers like Goldman ‘Government’ Sachs and Google," said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Local Taxi group LTDA. "Something is very, very wrong here."
Tfl says its provisional view is that the use of smart phones does not constitute a taximeter but has invited the High Court to rule on the issue. And yet TfL's compliance officers were out in force reporting Taxi drivers advertising the 11June demo for sporting unauthorised stickers.
In London, 20,000 taxis are expected to cause gridlock at Wednesday's 6 hour protest.
"What else are we meant to do?" said cabbie Jim, sheltering from the rain in the back of a taxi, drinking instant coffee from polystyrene cups with three colleagues who between them have over 150 years
experience driving taxis in London.
"It's do or die in this world."
Editorial Comment:
Jim's commitment is echoed by virtually all his colleagues.
It's inspiring that in the age of the billion dollar venture capitalist take over, asset stripping, greed is good type money men....we see a bit of the old Dunkirk spirit amongst the last bastions of London's heritage.
To every Cabby looking to play their part in this first battle, one of many more to come.
I salute you all. Let's give them Hell.
Jim Thomas.
