In the battle between Europe’s taxi drivers and the ride-sharing service Uber, score one for Uber.
On Thursday, London’s transportation regulator said that Uber, the US west coast technology startup that has faced protests in major cities across Europe from London to Milan, can legally operate in the British capital.
The decision by the regulator, Transport for London (TfL) to allow Uber to continue operating in London is centered on the technology that powers the startup’s service.
Photo: AFP
Under London’s taxi rules, only licensed black taxis can use meters in their vehicles to charge customers based on distance and time. The city’s licensed taxi drivers argued that Uber’s technology, which uses a smartphone-based technology to charge customers at the end of the journey based on the length of their trip, broke this regulation.
However, Transport for London disagreed.
“Smartphones that transmit location information between vehicles and operators have no operational or physical connection with the vehicles,” it said.
The phones are “not taxi meters within the meaning of the legislation,” it said.
The decision follows a region-wide protest by thousands of taxi drivers in Europe, who say they believe that Uber — which allows people to book taxis through a smartphone application — does not comply with local regulations and does not pay enough taxes in the cities where it operates.
This week, cab drivers in Madrid and Barcelona again took to the streets to protest Uber’s presence, although the service has yet to expand to the capital.
However, this was not the final green light for Uber in London. To clarify whether Uber’s technology can be considered a meter, TfL said it was asking a British court for a final ruling.
That decision must now wait until legal cases brought by a London taxi union against six Uber drivers are completed, the regulator said. The London taxi union brought the cases because it believes that the drivers’ use of Uber’s device to charge customers violates the city’s taxi licensing rules.
Until the cases are heard, Uber can operate in the British capital.
“Using a meter in a private vehicle is a criminal matter,” said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, adding that the cases against the Uber drivers would probably be heard in the fall.
“Our beef is with TfL, not Uber,” he said. “They are supposed to regulate the industry.”
Uber, which said that it had seen more than an eight-fold increase in people signing up in Britain after the taxi drivers’ protest last month, welcomed TfL’s decision.
In an apparent effort to win over skeptical cabbies in London, Uber said it had opened its service so that the city’s iconic black cabs could participate.
While few drivers have taken up the offer, a number of black cabs have begun appearing on Uber’s app.
“Today is a victory for common sense,” Jo Bertram, Uber’s general manager for Britain and Ireland, said Thursday in a statement. “Uber on, London.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese