London's short-sighted Uber ban
23 Sep 2017 | Reading time: 2 minThe Uber ban is bad news.
I know more than one person with a disability or chronic illness who relies on Uber – to see friends, to get to work, to get to medical appointments. Those people are literally only able to get around using Uber. They lose a lifeline if Uber is gone, as do thousands of drivers.
Uber also saves lives. Research by Dills and Mulholland finds that the rate of vehicle accidents, assaults and public order offences drops considerably when Uber enters a city.
Transport for London could have demanded reforms if it wanted to. Instead, it gave Uber one minute’s notice of the decision before going public with it. Other companies have tried to bring innovation to London’s taxi market and been brought to their knees by TfL’s vindictiveness.
To some extent I think their flouting of the rules has been a good thing. I was surprised that the LTDA lost a case against them alleging that Uber uses the driver’s mobile phone as a taximeter (which it clearly does!) – but it’s totally changed the shape of the market, and I believe for the better.
I’ve seen plenty of people enjoy watching Uber squirm. I look forward to hearing what they’re proposing should fill the gap – but given that nothing similar existed before Uber, it’s not clear that anything will.
TfL hasn’t given out much information on the decision, but they mention:
- Uber’s use of Greyball in London – an independent review has already found that they didn’t use it
- Uber’s approach to DBS checks – which are done by a government-owned company, as part of individuals getting a private hire licence, so not clear what Uber has to do with it
- Uber’s approach to medical checks – doctors were accepting bribes to give drivers a clean bill of health, but they were doing the same for other minicab firms, and again I don’t see how it’s Uber’s problem (any more than me going to the doctor and paying for a forged sick note to play hookey)
- Uber’s approach to reporting criminal offices – which is definitely awful (and far too slow), but there only seems to be a single case of them failing to report a serious assault to the police, the other one involving a legal self-defence dye spray, not pepper spray as the Met alleged