London Taxi Drivers Protest Over Phone App
occy
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London's black cab drivers have pledged to 'make a stand' to protect their jobs in a bitter row over the use of Smart Phone apps to calculate fares.
Vincent McGonigle is one of up to 10,000 who will demonstrate tomorrow, claiming private hire firms who use the Uber app are breaking the law on taximeters:
http://www.itv.com/news/london/story/2014-06-10/taxi-drivers-strike-over-mobile-phone-fares-app/
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Scotland Yard said it could prevent emergency services getting through.
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Comments
So passengers are using an app to calculate fees and taxis don't like this? Well just tell them you use your own meter fiteed onto the car instead
Which sounds fair considering black cab drivers study for 3 or 4 years to become one and anyone with a licence can be a mini cab driver
Happens all the time.
Thats true but i am going to play devils advocate here.
Technology may well have made the "knowledge redundant" as with many industries.
The Black Cab drivers fear de-regulation just where were they when other industries de-regulated.?
At the moment who knows what may happen in the future the de-regulation of the Black Cab trade is at a early stage yet.;-)
Yes, Minicabs aren't allowed to be metered but the legal question is whether this app counts as a meter. If it measures time and distance and then calculates a fare, what else can it be?
I'm all for competition but it has to be legal. The law in this area just needs clarifying.
I bet they where happily driving fares out to wapping when Murdoch instigated the demise of Fleet Street
This is what it is all about.
We have seen it with the music and film industries and now we are seeing it here, but the genie is out if the bottle and it ain't going back in.
Yes very possibly and buying shares in the utilities under Mrs Thatcher.
There is a saying that comes to mind which is.
United we stand divided we fall,the Black Cab drivers are about to find that out those bastions of free market enterprise are about to feel the breeze of that doctrine.
Sure, black cab drivers "do the knowledge" but I don't see anything wrong with customers being allowed to simply choose, for themselves, whether they hire a competent cabbie or a minicab with a driver of unknown competence.
Seems like that option should be sufficient to help customers decide without needing artificial fare restrictions to help sway their choice.
Which is why tfl have sought judicial review
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/05/29/tfl-refers-uber-app-row-high-court-licensed-taxi-drivers-association-strike-still
. From http://www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2014/june/traffic-disruption-caused-by-taxi-protest-on-wednesday-11-june
Modern tech capabilities trump the arbitrary and historic status/protection in question.
The black taxi drivers come across as arrogant, protectionist and stroppy as technology and enterprise have come up with a better system.
Imagine applying the same logic to non-Hackney fruit shops.
"How much is that bunch of bananas please?"
"Sorry, dunno I'm not allowed to weigh them, we'll have to guess"
This app does nothing but give people some more info that's all.
For now it would not take much to tweak it to provide more info.:);-)
Such as er .................cost differentials between a Black Cab and Mini Cab.. ;-)
Minimum fare is double in a minicab what it is in a black taxi.
Hmm where i live in a minicab i can go 6 miles for £12 in a Black Cab its £15.
Blame TFL. They set the rates, nothing to do with the drivers.
For short journeys though it's different,£5 min in a minicab, £2.60 in a black taxi.