"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 22:50:11 on Fri, 22 Apr 2016,
Mizter T remarked:
The complaint is they claim minicabs are plying for hire around St
Pancras and KX.

More specifically, uninsured minicabs.

Wrong, that's not the complaint.

Private hire cars (aka minicabs) are not allowed to ply for hire on the
streets, only taxis can do that.

I'd suggest that you'll find very few, if any, TfL-licensed but uninsured
minicabs out on the street in London - being uninsured means they'll lose
their licence.

No, the complaint is that because Uber has roughly doubled the number of
minicabs in London, the TfL compliance department has been overwhelmed and
can no longer adequately police whether the cabs do have proper insurance.
That's insurance for being a minicab at all, not insurance for pretending
to be a hackney.

There's a secondary gripe, about Uber cars lurking around hot spots like
Kings Cross, blocking the streets as they don't have any ranks to use, so
that they can pick up their fares in seconds. One of the changes that's
being asked for is a period of purdah (5 minutes perhaps) between someone
ordering a Uber and it being allowed to pick them up.

I can't see the connection between those two things though.

The 5 minute wait was just a "ruse" to disrupt the business model and ISTM
is unlikely to have any effect on drivers congregating "just around the
corner" from major pick up points. It's so short that they would just wait
there for 5 minutes longer.

tim






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Roland Perry