It's noticeable how many of the comments above are about London, Certainly outside London it's been common for decades to in reality be using private hire cars as the normal default when you ring up for a 'taxi'. Is London different in this regard?
I don't know if you typed that tongue-in-cheek, but here goes.
Taxis in London are black cabs, you can phone for one, but it will have £2.80, or £3.40, or maybe £3.80 on the meter when it arrives, this is perfectly legal, and is referred to as the 'run-in.'
Minicabs in London can, and will, be anything from a Mercedes-Benz to a Mondeo tied up with string, they are NOT, and never will be, taxis, but in the mind of John Q. Public, real taxis, and minicabs are beginning to merge as one.
It is your prerogative to use whatever you wish to convey you around London, but be assured, if you want a proper TAXI, you'll use a black cab.
Look at it this way, if you broke your arm, a veterinary surgeon could probably help you, and ease your pain, but ideally you'd be better off with a fracture surgeon, who has trained to medically assist humans.
And another one, where are you getting this misinformation from
Uber drivers and vehicles in the UK are licensed private hire drivers and vehicles subject to exactly the same checks by local councils/Tfl as those working for private hire firms including background checks, checks of vehicle and insurance, identical to those for hackney carriages.
It was IIRC a Guardia journalist who registered with Uber using fake insurance documents and got accepted, all of about two weeks ago...(it's easy to find on google).
So something was obviously going wrong
The information about the Uber parties and tracking people has been around in tech news for a while (IIRC Uber forgot one of the guests was a journalist).
I took a cab from Victoria, a black cab and it cost me £19.50 to get to where I was going. I was coming back to Victoria with a friend who has an uber acc and the fare was £13. Quite a difference so I can see why people are switching perhaps the cabbies should lower their prices slightly.
It was IIRC a Guardia journalist who registered with Uber using fake insurance documents and got accepted, all of about two weeks ago...(it's easy to find on google).
So something was obviously going wrong
Well that is something that needs investigating by the local authority/Tfl who licence the individual as a private hire driver (if he even exists).
Uber are a tech provider finding you a private hire car in the same way that Just Eat lets you order from a local take-away. But it is your local council that is responsible for the food safety and licensing of the establishment and not Just Eat.
I took a cab from Victoria, a black cab and it cost me £19.50 to get to where I was going. I was coming back to Victoria with a friend who has an uber acc and the fare was £13. Quite a difference so I can see why people are switching perhaps the cabbies should lower their prices slightly.
As already stated, they get no choice in the fares. TFL set the prices, not the drivers.
Uber will also increase the prices when demand is heavy.
I took a cab from Victoria, a black cab and it cost me £19.50 to get to where I was going. I was coming back to Victoria with a friend who has an uber acc and the fare was £13. Quite a difference so I can see why people are switching perhaps the cabbies should lower their prices slightly.
There is quite a difference in the standard of the service you are hiring too. Cabbies take years to learn the knowledge.
I don't know if you typed that tongue-in-cheek, but here goes.
Taxis in London are black cabs, you can phone for one, but it will have £2.80, or £3.40, or maybe £3.80 on the meter when it arrives, this is perfectly legal, and is referred to as the 'run-in.'
Minicabs in London can, and will, be anything from a Mercedes-Benz to a Mondeo tied up with string, they are NOT, and never will be, taxis, but in the mind of John Q. Public, real taxis, and minicabs are beginning to merge as one.
It is your prerogative to use whatever you wish to convey you around London, but be assured, if you want a proper TAXI, you'll use a black cab.
Look at it this way, if you broke your arm, a veterinary surgeon could probably help you, and ease your pain, but ideally you'd be better off with a fracture surgeon, who has trained to medically assist humans.
Nothing tongue-in-cheek about it. Outside London taxis and minicabs are pretty much one and the same in most people's minds. OK, you can hail a taxi but not a minicab, but that's just about the only difference.
Apart from the fact that even the best sat nav doesn't know what roads are likely to be busy due to a special event, sat navs tend to require the rough location (postcode or street) for many places that an experienced cabby will know by all sorts of names.
The cabbie will also be able to keep working the route even in built up areas and will be far more up to date on routes than the sat navs.
For example sat navs update their maps at intervals (usually 3-6-12 months) if you subscribe to that service, and may be either out of date of premature with their mapping.
Not to mention even the best sat nav's can make mistakes about how accessable an area is.
So your sat nav might try taking you down a road that has yet to be finished if it's running late, it may ignore a better route because it's not yet in the map data, or it may not be able to tell that a road has just gone one way.
Human cabbies with decent local knowledge on the otherhand will know the state of the road system, be able to get you to places even if you only have a partial (or incorrect name but a description). For example people might ask for London Bridge but mean Tower Bridge, a cabbie will likely double check, a sat nav will likely take you to the bridge you named even though you meant the historic one.
i like sat nav's, they're a lot easier than map reading whilst on the go , but I've had them (despite being up to date) try to send me down things like footpaths or dead ends.
To put this simply licensed black taxi drivers cannot set their own fares and have to bear higher running costs due to regulation.
This is not fair competition as they are not allowed to compete.
Put it another way would you like to run a business where your prices are set by the council and you have high costs imposed by the council whereas your direct competition is allowed to set his own prices and has lower running costs imposed by the local council - hardly fair is it?
All they are asking for is a level playing field and either have the ability to match Uber or have Uber's costs matching theirs.
Nothing tongue-in-cheek about it. Outside London taxis and minicabs are pretty much one and the same in most people's minds. OK, you can hail a taxi but not a minicab, but that's just about the only difference.
Where I live in Bristol, Hackney Carriages and Private Hire vehicles are vastly different. The former are for hailing only, must be an approved vehicle type, are metered according to Bristol City Councils carriage rates and must be painted the right shade of blue.
Private hires are any old Nissan Primera, can be booked and you negotiate a price.
Because Sat Navs are notoriously crap. Fine if you don't know a place, but a poor substitute for a cab driver's knowledge.I wouldn't trust my heart surgery to someone who had passed a CRB check and had the webmd app on his phone.
Because Sat Navs are notoriously crap. Fine if you don't know a place, but a poor substitute for a cab driver's knowledge.I wouldn't trust my heart surgery to someone who had passed a CRB check and had the webmd app on his phone.
No they're not, yours might be but there are some very good live internet connected devices, live incidents / traffic queues and crowdsourced traffic algorithms which help benchmark speeds for roads at the time of day and optimise the best route.
When I'm using the Google navigation it tells me it's 2 mins longer if I go left, for example and it knows that based on others who are driving the same roads. Smartphone based satnavs are amazing these days and all you need is a dock to clip it to the dashboard.
What I don't understand is why the black cabs don't launch an alternative or join in and link up with Uber on a black cab option for people that want them. It isn't worth resisting or fighting the advance of technology, you're always on a hiding to nothing and you'll waste the time you could have spent utilising it and working it to your benefit.
To put this simply licensed black taxi drivers cannot set their own fares and have to bear higher running costs due to regulation.
This is not fair competition as they are not allowed to compete.
Put it another way would you like to run a business where your prices are set by the council and you have high costs imposed by the council whereas your direct competition is allowed to set his own prices and has lower running costs imposed by the local council - hardly fair is it?
All they are asking for is a level playing field and either have the ability to match Uber or have Uber's costs matching theirs.
Level playing field? So hackney carriage drivers would be OK giving up the ability to be hailed? And be happy to share their lucrative ranks at rail stations and airports with Uber/private hire vehicles?
What I don't understand is why the black cabs don't launch an alternative or join in and link up with Uber on a black cab option for people that want them. It isn't worth resisting or fighting the advance of technology, you're always on a hiding to nothing and you'll waste the time you could have spent utilising it and working it to your benefit.
There already are alterntives, I think the biggest is Gett (formerly GetTaxi) http://gett.com/uk/ which operates in 25 UK cities including London.
Because Sat Navs are notoriously crap. Fine if you don't know a place, but a poor substitute for a cab driver's knowledge.I wouldn't trust my heart surgery to someone who had passed a CRB check and had the webmd app on his phone.
Sorry, but that analogy simply doesn't work. With all respect to taxi drivers, there is a fundamental difference in the level of skill and knowledge needed to perform cardiac surgery vis driving a taxi from A to B.
To put this simply licensed black taxi drivers cannot set their own fares and have to bear higher running costs due to regulation.
This is not fair competition as they are not allowed to compete.
Put it another way would you like to run a business where your prices are set by the council and you have high costs imposed by the council whereas your direct competition is allowed to set his own prices and has lower running costs imposed by the local council - hardly fair is it?
All they are asking for is a level playing field and either have the ability to match Uber or have Uber's costs matching theirs.
But surely the comparison with Uber is much more one between Uber and private hire firms?
Actually, I agree that it is ludicrous that councils control taxi fares. Passengers would get a much better deal if drivers/taxi companies could set their own rates. These should be published on the side of vehicles and on the taxi firm's website so a passenger knew what they were going to be charged.
I was in a bar recently, in Praed St. Paddington, at a firm's leaving 'do' with a few of my girlfriends.
It was decided that we'd all go to Hakkasan, a Chinese restaurant, just off Oxford St. for a late dinner.
As I've already stated on this thread, I never use minicabs, but the other three girls asked the barman to call them a cab.
I walked out into Praed St., hailed a black cab, said, "Hakkasan please, the one near Tottenham Court Rd.", and was in the restaurant in about 10 to 12 minutes.
About 15 minutes after I arrived, one of my friends called me and said, "Can you find out the postcode of the restaurant, the minicab driver doesn't know where it is, and needs to punch the code into his Sat-Nav."
That's one example of the Knowledge beating minicabs.
Sorry, but that analogy simply doesn't work. With all respect to taxi drivers, there is a fundamental difference in the level of skill and knowledge needed to perform cardiac surgery vis driving a taxi from A to B.
But all the skill and knowledge is in the app, no?
But surely the comparison with Uber is much more one between Uber and private hire firms?
Actually, I agree that it is ludicrous that councils control taxi fares. Passengers would get a much better deal if drivers/taxi companies could set their own rates. These should be published on the side of vehicles and on the taxi firm's website so a passenger knew what they were going to be charged.
lol next you will be telling me unregulated competition reduces prices.
I was in a bar recently, in Praed St. Paddington, at a firm's leaving 'do' with a few of my girlfriends.
It was decided that we'd all go to Hakkasan, a Chinese restaurant, just off Oxford St. for a late dinner.
As I've already stated on this thread, I never use minicabs, but the other three girls asked the barman to call them a cab.
I walked out into Praed St., hailed a black cab, said, "Hakkasan please, the one near Tottenham Court Rd.", and was in the restaurant in about 10 to 12 minutes.
About 15 minutes after I arrived, one of my friends called me and said, "Can you find out the postcode of the restaurant, the minicab driver doesn't know where it is, and needs to punch the code into his Sat-Nav."
That's one example of the Knowledge beating minicabs.
Not sure why the minicab driver didn't just google it, or use google now. "Give me directions to Hakkasan, Tottenham court Road" Says more about that particular driver being a bit slow than anything ele.
Even so, what was the cost difference between what you paid between what they each paid? Is that saving worth it taking longer? For more people in most situations it is. I'd rather pay less and I don't mind if it takes a bit longer.
I was in a bar recently, in Praed St. Paddington, at a firm's leaving 'do' with a few of my girlfriends.
It was decided that we'd all go to Hakkasan, a Chinese restaurant, just off Oxford St. for a late dinner.
As I've already stated on this thread, I never use minicabs, but the other three girls asked the barman to call them a cab.
I walked out into Praed St., hailed a black cab, said, "Hakkasan please, the one near Tottenham Court Rd.", and was in the restaurant in about 10 to 12 minutes.
About 15 minutes after I arrived, one of my friends called me and said, "Can you find out the postcode of the restaurant, the minicab driver doesn't know where it is, and needs to punch the code into his Sat-Nav."
That's one example of the Knowledge beating minicabs.
Yet again a London example. People in other towns and cities use minicabs day day out. It would be totally unreasonable for policy towards Uber to be driven by whatever suits London.
Business is business and if someone comes along with a cheaper alternative that people like, why should others be allowed to try and get laws changed just because it hits them in the pocket and they don't like it.
Still, at least they have some reason unlike banning vaping. They try and ban vaping with no reason or sense at all.
Comments
I don't know if you typed that tongue-in-cheek, but here goes.
Taxis in London are black cabs, you can phone for one, but it will have £2.80, or £3.40, or maybe £3.80 on the meter when it arrives, this is perfectly legal, and is referred to as the 'run-in.'
Minicabs in London can, and will, be anything from a Mercedes-Benz to a Mondeo tied up with string, they are NOT, and never will be, taxis, but in the mind of John Q. Public, real taxis, and minicabs are beginning to merge as one.
It is your prerogative to use whatever you wish to convey you around London, but be assured, if you want a proper TAXI, you'll use a black cab.
Look at it this way, if you broke your arm, a veterinary surgeon could probably help you, and ease your pain, but ideally you'd be better off with a fracture surgeon, who has trained to medically assist humans.
It was IIRC a Guardia journalist who registered with Uber using fake insurance documents and got accepted, all of about two weeks ago...(it's easy to find on google).
So something was obviously going wrong
The information about the Uber parties and tracking people has been around in tech news for a while (IIRC Uber forgot one of the guests was a journalist).
Well that is something that needs investigating by the local authority/Tfl who licence the individual as a private hire driver (if he even exists).
Uber are a tech provider finding you a private hire car in the same way that Just Eat lets you order from a local take-away. But it is your local council that is responsible for the food safety and licensing of the establishment and not Just Eat.
As already stated, they get no choice in the fares. TFL set the prices, not the drivers.
Uber will also increase the prices when demand is heavy.
There is quite a difference in the standard of the service you are hiring too. Cabbies take years to learn the knowledge.
Who needs it in the era of sat navs?
Apart from the fact that even the best sat nav doesn't know what roads are likely to be busy due to a special event, sat navs tend to require the rough location (postcode or street) for many places that an experienced cabby will know by all sorts of names.
The cabbie will also be able to keep working the route even in built up areas and will be far more up to date on routes than the sat navs.
For example sat navs update their maps at intervals (usually 3-6-12 months) if you subscribe to that service, and may be either out of date of premature with their mapping.
Not to mention even the best sat nav's can make mistakes about how accessable an area is.
So your sat nav might try taking you down a road that has yet to be finished if it's running late, it may ignore a better route because it's not yet in the map data, or it may not be able to tell that a road has just gone one way.
Human cabbies with decent local knowledge on the otherhand will know the state of the road system, be able to get you to places even if you only have a partial (or incorrect name but a description). For example people might ask for London Bridge but mean Tower Bridge, a cabbie will likely double check, a sat nav will likely take you to the bridge you named even though you meant the historic one.
i like sat nav's, they're a lot easier than map reading whilst on the go , but I've had them (despite being up to date) try to send me down things like footpaths or dead ends.
This is not fair competition as they are not allowed to compete.
Put it another way would you like to run a business where your prices are set by the council and you have high costs imposed by the council whereas your direct competition is allowed to set his own prices and has lower running costs imposed by the local council - hardly fair is it?
All they are asking for is a level playing field and either have the ability to match Uber or have Uber's costs matching theirs.
Where I live in Bristol, Hackney Carriages and Private Hire vehicles are vastly different. The former are for hailing only, must be an approved vehicle type, are metered according to Bristol City Councils carriage rates and must be painted the right shade of blue.
Private hires are any old Nissan Primera, can be booked and you negotiate a price.
Because Sat Navs are notoriously crap. Fine if you don't know a place, but a poor substitute for a cab driver's knowledge.I wouldn't trust my heart surgery to someone who had passed a CRB check and had the webmd app on his phone.
No they're not, yours might be but there are some very good live internet connected devices, live incidents / traffic queues and crowdsourced traffic algorithms which help benchmark speeds for roads at the time of day and optimise the best route.
When I'm using the Google navigation it tells me it's 2 mins longer if I go left, for example and it knows that based on others who are driving the same roads. Smartphone based satnavs are amazing these days and all you need is a dock to clip it to the dashboard.
What I don't understand is why the black cabs don't launch an alternative or join in and link up with Uber on a black cab option for people that want them. It isn't worth resisting or fighting the advance of technology, you're always on a hiding to nothing and you'll waste the time you could have spent utilising it and working it to your benefit.
Level playing field? So hackney carriage drivers would be OK giving up the ability to be hailed? And be happy to share their lucrative ranks at rail stations and airports with Uber/private hire vehicles?
There already are alterntives, I think the biggest is Gett (formerly GetTaxi) http://gett.com/uk/ which operates in 25 UK cities including London.
Sorry, but that analogy simply doesn't work. With all respect to taxi drivers, there is a fundamental difference in the level of skill and knowledge needed to perform cardiac surgery vis driving a taxi from A to B.
I think most normal people interested in progress can see what a good thing Uber is.
It's no different from calling a minicab. The drivers are still licensed, vetted etc.
Hackney carriage drivers really do operate like such a racket sometimes.
But surely the comparison with Uber is much more one between Uber and private hire firms?
Actually, I agree that it is ludicrous that councils control taxi fares. Passengers would get a much better deal if drivers/taxi companies could set their own rates. These should be published on the side of vehicles and on the taxi firm's website so a passenger knew what they were going to be charged.
I was in a bar recently, in Praed St. Paddington, at a firm's leaving 'do' with a few of my girlfriends.
It was decided that we'd all go to Hakkasan, a Chinese restaurant, just off Oxford St. for a late dinner.
As I've already stated on this thread, I never use minicabs, but the other three girls asked the barman to call them a cab.
I walked out into Praed St., hailed a black cab, said, "Hakkasan please, the one near Tottenham Court Rd.", and was in the restaurant in about 10 to 12 minutes.
About 15 minutes after I arrived, one of my friends called me and said, "Can you find out the postcode of the restaurant, the minicab driver doesn't know where it is, and needs to punch the code into his Sat-Nav."
That's one example of the Knowledge beating minicabs.
But all the skill and knowledge is in the app, no?
Even so, what was the cost difference between what you paid between what they each paid? Is that saving worth it taking longer? For more people in most situations it is. I'd rather pay less and I don't mind if it takes a bit longer.
Still, at least they have some reason unlike banning vaping. They try and ban vaping with no reason or sense at all.
(Have a friend who is a wannabee actor and goes out in LA Ubering most evenings)