In message 157824532.465682243.484367.recliner.ng-
, at 20:21:34 on Sun, 4 Oct
2015, Recliner remarked:
They can't get customers to book
them on the spot: the booking has to be made through Uber.

They can get the customer to book them through Uber, on the spot.

I don't think they can. You can't pick a particular vehicle to book through
Uber, can you? And Uber cars aren't marked.

That doesn't matter if you are already sat in it, talking to the driver.

How would you identify it as an Uber car?

Because the driver will have accosted you as you walked along the
pavement.

As a would-be passenger, why wouldn't you simply use the app to book a
car, knowing that there are several in the vicinity? You'd do it
before even coming out on to the street.

Many people don't think that far ahead.

Or possibly do an off books "deal" with the customer.

Not legally they can't. And Uber would take a dim view of it as well.

If there was no illegality going on, we simply wouldn't be having this
conversation.

That would be something that Uber's systems would soon spot. It would see
drivers hanging around in an area of high demand, then suddenly becoming
not available, travelling some distance, then signing on again. I bet
Uber's systems would soon spot some drivers regularly doing that.

Do we actually know if there actually is some illegality going on? Or is
that just an allegation from the black cabs cartel? The sort of person who
refers to all mini cabs as "pirate cars"

All of them? No, there's just a few thousand getting the rest a bad
name.

would no doubt be happy to make
such allegations, supposedly in the interests of passenger safety.

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-an...ompliance-and-
enforcement

Clifford Chance reports some infractions in #3 of this piece (from a
lobbying body, but they won't have made up the quotes):

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ubers-...ifford-chance-
fighting-to-ban-it-here-are-the-5-big-arguments-2015-10
--
Roland Perry