Garrett Emmerson, chief operating officer for roads at TFL, said: “The new proposals are not an attack on apps”.
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Uber is of course able to participate in the consultation, by submitting its feedback to TfL, along with all the other PHV firms in London.
London is now the latest city to turn its attention to Uber’s potential impact on local registered taxi services.
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, has accused Uber of benefiting from a “lax regulatory system”.
The United Kingdom is not the only country where Uber’s disruptive nature has faced backlash: Uber has been banned in Spain, China and much of Australia, while UberPop is illegal in France, Germany and New Zealand. However, the driver’s experience is often mixed depending on who you talk to. Many of Uber’s drivers are part-time workers.
Transport for London (TFL) is set to launch a consultation for a series of measures on private hire in the capital. “In recent years the private hire industry has grown exponentially and technology has also developed rapidly”. “The consultation sets out a number of ways that standards across the industry could be raised”.
Uber, the taxi-hailing app that is taking on traditional cab drivers around the world, faces the prospect of a severe crackdown in London under proposals from the capital’s transport authority.
In response to the proposals, Uber started a petition in opposition, which says the new rules will be “bad for riders, drivers and London”.
Uber is urging its customers to sign a petition against the suggestions, and said the new rules “will mean an end to the Uber you know and love today”.
Under new rules, cabs will have to wait for a minimum of five minutes for picking up a passenger (more on them below).
It’s important to note that none of these rules have actually been enforced yet, but they will be opened up to a public consultation on whether London residents back the ideas. These rules make no sense.
It added: “We understand that black cab drivers are feeling the pressure from services like Uber”.
The petition is gathering signatures at a rapid pace.
It’s also purported to be proposing that private hire operators like Uber would have to stop showing cars available at a given time within its smartphone app. The Twitter feed is a stream of pictures of cars that have been in accidents.
Uber has provoked a backlash in cities across the globe, with the mayor of Rio de Janeiro saying on Tuesday he would ban its use in the city while a taxi drivers protest jammed the center of Bratislava on Monday.
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“At the moment there is not a level playing field and a few operators don’t have the level of checks needed to ensure Londoners’ safety”.
