Uber London loses licence to operate
Londoner here.<p>The license is not being renewed not because TfL isn&#x27;t interested in innovation (they actively encourage it), not to retain power for the black cab drivers, and not because London isn&#x27;t interested in companies like Uber operating here.<p>It&#x27;s because of the rapes.<p>The Metropolitan Police (the part of the UK police force that polices London), has objected to their license.<p>In 2015 alone, they had to deal with 32 cases of Uber drivers raping or sexually assaulting lone female passengers.<p>In the entire history of the hackney carriage (black cab) license - going back to 1662 - I know of only one case of a driver having been prosecuted for rape, about 5 years ago.<p>Uber is not reporting crimes, not co-operating with the police when they are reported, is not doing suitable background checks on criminality or medical suitability for being a private hire driver on its &quot;workforce&quot;, and there is suspicion that they are both price gouging and specifically trying to go around the private hire regulations they claim to support.<p>Also from the TfL statement:<p>&gt; The Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 includes provision to appeal a licensing decision within 21 days of it being communicated to the applicant. Uber London Limited can continue to operate until any appeal processes have been exhausted.<p>That means they&#x27;re not shutting up shop soon, they can appeal in the next 8 days, then continue to operate until the appeals process is over.<p>That means if they start dealing with driver checks, crime reports and regulations properly within the time frame of the appeals process (which can be years), they&#x27;ll be allowed to continue to operate.<p>As a Londoner, I&#x27;m OK with that. If they aren&#x27;t interested in conducting criminal record checks, medical checks, making sure my gf is safe when travelling alone, etc. I don&#x27;t want them in my city.<p>If the regulators bring about these changes, they are doing their job and I&#x27;m happy for them to scare the holy fuck out of Uber and their management team in the process to make that happen.<p>In the meantime, other operators have upped their game a lot in recent years whilst Uber has been operating. Addison Lee (one of the larger private hire firms) has an app almost as good as Uber&#x27;s, with fixed cost pricing.<p>We will not miss Uber if they go, they are going to need to show that they are worthy of being a part of the diverse and amazing London community if they wish to remain.