As editor of Taxi Leaks, I wrote to Peter Hendy (and everyone else at TfL and the GLA I had email addresses for) complaining that the Uber Add on TfL's website was grossly inappropriate. I received a reply from Graeme Craig, Director of Commercial Development at TfL saying that in their opinion the advert met with TfL's published guidance.
Another member of Taxi Leaks staff replied pointing out that the advert was causing great offence and not only did Taxi drivers feel it inappropriate, TfL were the only regulator in the UK that were advertising in their web site. We could find no Taxi licensing authority in the world that carried adverts on their web pages.
Also we felt that the advert may incite someone to break the law in as much as the way the company operates in London which is subject to legal proceedings.
It is morally incomprehensible for a licensing authority to advertise a service which could prove to be operating illegally.
Surely TfL has a duty of care to protect the public from such services?
We then received a reply from Vernon Everette saying "As Graeme explained, we have given careful consideration to whether this advertisement breaches our guidelines. This included detailed consideration of the sections of the guidelines you mention.
Our conclusion remains that the advertisement for drivers does not breach our advertising guidelines".
As we felt TfL were being unreasonable on this issue, we decided to go over their heads and wrote directly to the Mayor, our respective MP's and also the chair of the GLA transport committee, laying out our concerns.
Although it has yet to be confirmed, on close inspection of the TfL web site, it would appear at present, the Uber advert has been removed.
