Uber-taxi battle lands at council

Whilst the suggestions have unsurprisingly proved unpopular with Uber, they have been welcome by the chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Valerie Shawcross CBE AM, who said; “It’s good to see TfL finally showing a few teeth on this issue”.

UberX, the most commonly used service provided by Uber Canada, has been operating in Toronto for a year. An independent task force has been established in NSW to assess the future of the state’s point-to-point transport industry, which includes taxis, hire cars and ride-sharing.

If implemented, the rules would drastically restrict the service that Uber now provides. (The two companies were founded within months of each other, Uber in San Francisco in March 2009, and Hailo in London in late 2010).

It would also tighten insurance rules for drivers and introduce an interval of at least five minutes between making a booking and the start of the journey to give drivers time to plan their route.

The app-based vehicle service Uber would be forced to shut operations in London, as most of their key services would be banned.

At city hall on Wednesday, councillors voted in favour of Mayor John Tory’s motion to begin the process of regulating ride-sharing service Uber by creating new bylaws.

The NRMA is also calling on the taxi industry to abolish its five per cent card payment surcharge and review its “draconian” leasing and network fees now forced on individual drivers.

100,000 Uber users in the Capital have come out in support of the start-up, while the Institute of Directors dubbed the proposals “damaging”, to London’s reputation as a global centre for innovation.

TfL says the consultation seeks to “raise standards across the industry” following an “exponential” growth in the private hire industry and technology.

“Hailo was made strong by its original connections to the taxi trade and we feel we’ve drifted too far from it”.

But even with this in mind, TfL’s proposals will come as a surprise given that the Conservative government has regularly spoken up for Uber.

Under the new rules, ride-sharing operators will also face criminal and driving checks similar to those imposed on taxi drivers.

After more than six hours of debating, councillors voted 32-12 in favour of asking city staff to develop new rules to accommodate Uber within the city’s taxi bylaws.

London black cab drivers have meanwhile been staging numerous protests against the proliferation of Uber and the increase in minicab licensing.

“That system largely worked fine until recently, but the emergence of Uber has turned it on its head”, he said.