On 02/10/2015 06:26, Robin9 wrote:
;150401 Wrote:
Vehicle tests, DBS & Police checks, knowledge tests. Not sure how many
could
be credibly done by an operator.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The vehicle tests and criminal record checks are not done by
the operators. Negligent TfL has only delegated knowledge testing
to the cab firms who, of course, pass every driver because they
want as many drivers as possible.

TIs there a street knowledge test (or requirement) for the drivers of
the unlicensed vehicles?

Surely that's only for taxi-drivers?

On 03/10/2015 02:08, Recliner wrote:
JNugent wrote:
On 01/10/2015 18:53, tim..... wrote:

"Recliner" wrote in message
...

wrote:
In article ,
(JNugent) wrote:

On 30/09/2015 17:49, tim..... wrote:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/tph...hire-proposals

so what does the team think?

tim

The law is clear.

"Services" such as Ãœber cannot operate lawfully unless:

(a) each vehicle is tested and licensed before commencing operations,

(b) each driver applies for a licence, is investigated and not found
ineligible, before commencing operations, and

(c) the operator (presumably Ãœber) establishes a base within Greater
London and submits to the appropriate licensing regime, thereafter
complying with the requirements for record-keeping, etc.

Do all of those (especially assessing and licensing the drivers to
weed out dodgy characters) and Ãœber is effectively pointless.

Indeed. The absolutely crucial protection for the public is (b). Why
people
think it's a good idea to get into cars with possible mass murderers
I just
don't understand.

Those seem fair enough, but I think it would be absurd to stop cabs being
boarded within 5 mins or showing a map of locally available cars. By all
means protect consumers, but not cartels. For example, in an Internet and
Cloud age, why does record keeping have to be based locally? The changes
should be based strictly on increasing competition while protecting
consumers, not suppliers.

One of the points I have issue with is the prohibition of "ride sharing"
(by customer choice).

Personally, I think that it should be encouraged, I can't understand the
Taxi "industries" dislike of it.

When travelling in e.g. Germany/Sweden/Finland (all personal
experiences), on arrival at the airport I can go to the taxi pick up and
chose to share a ride with other people going my way (at the appropriate
discount).

ISTM that there would be more punters for long distance rides if this
was available in the UK. I'm buggered if I'm going to walk up to the
rank for a 150 pound taxi for a journey I can do by train for 20 quid,
but if offered the opportunity to share the ride with 2 others for 50
quid each I would happily take it.

Why is the aversion to this so great that the authorities think that
they have to legislate against it, not for it (as other countries do)?

tim

There is nothing in the London Cab Acts or the Town Police Clauses Act
which prevents passengers from teaming up for a joint-hiring. AAMOF,
they do it all the time.

What the law will not stomach is the operator and/or driver of the cab
(or pirate car) doing the arranging. It has to be up to the passenger to
do the picking and choosing of travelling companions.

Why is that deemed to be a passenger benefit?

What?

Seriously?

Because a taxi is - in its very essence - a *private* space which can be
hired by the passenger to the exclusion of others. It is not a bus. If a
bus is what is wanted, buses are available.

Far too many of these rules
look like they're there to protect suppliers, not consumers.

But not that one.

On 10/3/2015 2:29 AM, JNugent wrote:
On 03/10/2015 02:08, Recliner wrote:

What the law will not stomach is the operator and/or driver of the cab
(or pirate car) doing the arranging. It has to be up to the passenger to
do the picking and choosing of travelling companions.

Why is that deemed to be a passenger benefit?

What?

Seriously?

Because a taxi is - in its very essence - a *private* space which can be
hired by the passenger to the exclusion of others. It is not a bus. If a
bus is what is wanted, buses are available.


What? There's a bus that takes me from Heathrow to outside my house in
Shadwell?

On 2015-10-03 01:29:58 +0000, JNugent said:

Because a taxi is - in its very essence - a *private* space which can
be hired by the passenger to the exclusion of others. It is not a bus.
If a bus is what is wanted, buses are available.

But demand-responsive hailable shared transport (unless you arrange the
share) is not available, and seems to be illegal. Why? It would seem
to provide an effective half-bus half-taxi means of transport in
smaller towns where proper bus operation is increasingly unaffordable.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-03 01:12:37 +0000, JNugent said:

TIs there a street knowledge test (or requirement) for the drivers of
the unlicensed vehicles?

Surely that's only for taxi-drivers?

Who cares? It's 2015, there is sat-nav.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-03 09:14:00 +0000, said:

Isn't it reasonable for the hirer to be in charge of choosing their
companions?

If they want, yes. But if they would like to delegate that to the
operator and save money, why should they not do so?

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On 2015-10-03 01:12:37 +0000, JNugent said:

TIs there a street knowledge test (or requirement) for the drivers
of the unlicensed vehicles?

Surely that's only for taxi-drivers?

Who cares? It's 2015, there is sat-nav.

Hollow laugh How many sat-nav howlers are you aware of?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 09:57:52 on Sat, 3 Oct 2015, Recliner
remarked:
Once during a Metro strike in Paris, I shared a cab to the airport with
three strangers from the long taxi queue.

I'm pretty sure that in times of great stress (like tube strikes) there
are measures put in place at some London mainline terminal stations to
'force' people to share taxis to nearby destinations.

And in the USA I've been at several Conference Centres where the taxi
line at the end of the day is managed by the site's security staff and
they 'force' people heading for the same destination (usually a hotel)
to share a cab. A lot of Americans dislike this idea, but are given the
choice of "share a cab or walk".

It's remarkably easy to organise - the person at the head of the queue
tells the cab marshal where they are going, and he calls that out eg:
"Downtown Hilton". And until they have enough additional 'volunteers'
from the queue to fill the cab, it goes nowhere.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 05:32:14
on Sat, 3 Oct 2015, remarked:

TIs there a street knowledge test (or requirement) for the drivers
of the unlicensed vehicles?

Surely that's only for taxi-drivers?

Who cares? It's 2015, there is sat-nav.

Hollow laugh How many sat-nav howlers are you aware of?

Satnavs aren't always very good at trips to *places* rather than
*addresses*. I remember many years ago getting into a cab in central
London with a visitor from the USA and telling the driver the name of a
small restaurant in Kensington. Where he whisked us with no additional
prompting. The visitor was amazed!
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 05:32:14 on
Sat, 3 Oct 2015, remarked:

TIs there a street knowledge test (or requirement) for the drivers
of the unlicensed vehicles?

Surely that's only for taxi-drivers?

Who cares? It's 2015, there is sat-nav.

Hollow laugh How many sat-nav howlers are you aware of?

Satnavs aren't always very good at trips to *places* rather than
*addresses*. I remember many years ago getting into a cab in central
London with a visitor from the USA and telling the driver the name of a
small restaurant in Kensington. Where he whisked us with no additional
prompting. The visitor was amazed!
--
Roland Perry


With Uber you confirm the pickup and drop off points on a map, and the
search function is probably linked to Google so it will already know most
places. It would make sense for the app to learn anything that isn't already
in the search DB so if anyone is ever picked up or dropped off there it gets
added to the search function.

Sat-Nav howlers tend to be confined to standalone units (e.g. units fitted
in cars) with out of date map data; everyone else uses a smartphone with
online data. The driver of a taxi I pulled off the rank at Newark,NJ airport
recently only had a standalone unit with limited address data and had great
difficulty finding my hotel. Uber (which I started using once I had got
there) would have found the same hotel with no problem.

I've only had a couple of glitches with Uber in New Jersey:
1. The driver for what should have been my very first journey cancelled the
booking when he realised he would be driving 10 miles to pick me up for a 2
mile trip, so I used a local cab firm instead.
2. When I requested a taxi to meet me off a train the driver arrived at the
wrong side of the tracks and both the nearest crossing points - a bridge and
a level crossing - were closed to road traffic due to engineering work on
the railroad. A rather long diversion was required but that was his problem,
not mine.

--
DAS