London cabbies to protest over smartphone app.

London cabbies to protest over smartphone app.

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Discussion

Burwood

18,718 posts

261 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
drainbrain is a cabbie hehe

BJG1

5,966 posts

227 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
drainbrain said:
What he was SUPPOSED to do when he found it was take it straight to a police station and have it booked in as lost property. Guess YOUR guy was waiting to see if anyone called up about it. At least he was honest enough to cough up once you got onto it which is something I suppose. Guess the private hire firm he used to work for were ar least half disciplined. Sorry matey, but lost stuff in taxis goes (should go) straight to the cop station. Do I have to tell you WHY?
Good job he didn't do that, isn't it? Would have been a massive pain in the arse.


devnull

3,837 posts

172 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
I quite like to take an Uber Lux when i'm in London - usually get an immaculate S Class or A8L, water included and a false sense of self importance as I'm wafted about in the back hehe

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Zod said:
Nope. He did what Uber requires and what I wanted. I have left umbrellas in taxis, nice ones. I have never managed to recover one.

By the way, do you speak as you write - shouting the words that you embolden? It is very odd.
You find it odd that when writing people embolden for emphasis? Fair enough I suppose. I should use the italic function but I'm not sure there is one. If it was longhand I might underline. Don't you? Doesn't everybody?

Anyway, you're a lucky boy. And you were probably a front seat passenger or else your uberman wasn't very busy. Again, do I have to tell you WHY? Seems you don't understand why the cops want stuff found in taxis taken to THEM. So do the taxi firms, though I accept that uber can't drop 'finds' into the base anyway because there isn't a base. to drop them into. And bases don't want the stuff because they're not lost property offices.

Your little adventure was at the weekend wasn't it? Any idea what a taxi base is like at the weekend? As well as the app, text, even the odd email and IVR (wot's that he asks) driven work there are perhaps a dozen (in Addison Lee a hundred) telephonists plus a couple of controllers. People like you who like to over-drink the cheap stuff (you don't get a hangover with the good stuff) are puking, peeing and even sometimes stting in taxis. Bosses at account holders (wot's that he asks) are demanding immediate cars for them and their friends. Drivers are knocking back jobs where a dog has unexpectedly turned up. There are fistfights and sometimes worse as drivers are being robbed or abused. And not infrequently, particularly amongst the drunks there are complaints about everything from the driver's breath to the state of the car. There are also accidents of every type and every level of seriousness. And cars breaking down mid-journey. And who's dealing with this? The controllers are, whilst the tidal wave of non-automated calls is being fielded by the telephonists. That's Friday and Saturday night. And the only difference on weeknights is that the volume's lower so there's less staff needed. Of course IVR can run the whole operation solo, but there are so many people who want direct human contact that those really quite expensive staff are 110% needed. So you're lucky. Usually the next passenger into the backseat steals what he finds there. And clearly you're hardly the type of person that anyone would phone at the weekend so the driver wouldn't even have known the phone was in the car. And nobody in management is interested in an argument about a phone. Or a bag of groceries. Or about what exactly wasn't in or not in the bag. So it gets taken to the police station. Or else the driver steals it if indeed (backseat in the dark) he's aware it's there at all. Driver taking it home? Good job your phone hasn't got anything serious or confidential in it, eh? Or that it wasn't a wallet full of 50's. Fancy arguing it out as to whether there was £900 or £500 in it?


( I quite enjoyed that).







Edited by Ollie_M on Saturday 13th February 10:56

twister

1,521 posts

251 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
drainbrain said:
What he was SUPPOSED to do when he found it was take it straight to a police station and have it booked in as lost property. Guess YOUR guy was waiting to see if anyone called up about it.
Or maybe, it wasn't until he got the call from Uber Central asking if he'd found a lost phone that he went out to have a thorough look around his car and found it tucked away somewhere not entirely obvious?

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
twister said:
Or maybe, it wasn't until he got the call from Uber Central asking if he'd found a lost phone that he went out to have a thorough look around his car and found it tucked away somewhere not entirely obvious?
That happens all the time. Doesn't often end well. But IS there an Uber Central staffed by humans who make such calls?

Vaud

54,964 posts

170 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all

danllama

5,728 posts

157 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
drainbrain said:
You find it odd that when writing people embolden for emphasis? Fair enough I suppose. I should use the italic function but I'm not sure there is one. If it was longhand I might underline. Don't you? Doesn't everybody?

Anyway, you're a lucky boy. And you were probably a front seat passenger or else your uberman wasn't very busy. Again, do I have to tell you WHY? Seems you don't understand why the cops want stuff found in taxis taken to THEM. So do the taxi firms, though I accept that uber can't drop 'finds' into the base anyway because there isn't a base. to drop them into. And bases don't want the stuff because they're not lost property offices.

Your little adventure was at the weekend wasn't it? Any idea what a taxi base is like at the weekend? As well as the app, text, even the odd email and IVR (wot's that he asks) driven work there are perhaps a dozen (in Addison Lee a hundred) telephonists plus a couple of controllers. People like you who like to over-drink the cheap stuff (you don't get a hangover with the good stuff) are puking, peeing and even sometimes stting in taxis. Bosses at account holders (wot's that he asks) are demanding immediate cars for them and their friends. Muslim drivers are knocking back jobs where a dog has unexpectedly turned up. There are fistfights and sometimes worse as drivers are being robbed or abused. And not infrequently, particularly amongst the drunks there are complaints about everything from the driver's breath to the state of the car. There are also accidents of every type and every level of seriousness. And cars breaking down mid-journey. And who's dealing with this? The controllers are, whilst the tidal wave of non-automated calls is being fielded by the telephonists. That's Friday and Saturday night. And the only difference on weeknights is that the volume's lower so there's less staff needed. Of course IVR can run the whole operation solo, but there are so many people who want direct human contact that those really quite expensive staff are 110% needed. So you're lucky. Usually the next passenger into the backseat steals what he finds there. And clearly you're hardly the type of person that anyone would phone at the weekend so the driver wouldn't even have known the phone was in the car. And nobody in management is interested in an argument about a phone. Or a bag of groceries. Or about what exactly wasn't in or not in the bag. So it gets taken to the police station. Or else the driver steals it if indeed (backseat in the dark) he's aware it's there at all. Driver taking it home? Good job your phone hasn't got anything serious or confidential in it, eh? Or that it wasn't a wallet full of 50's. Fancy arguing it out as to whether there was £900 or £500 in it?


( I quite enjoyed that).
Just thought you should know you come across as a bit of a tosser in that post.

Cheers!

CorbynForTheBin

12,320 posts

209 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Do we think BrainDrain is a cabbie? wink

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
danllama said:
Just thought you should know you come across as a bit of a tosser in that post.

Cheers!
And which bit did you think wasn't reality?

Love and Peace!

LotusMartin

1,122 posts

167 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
drainbrain said:
You find it odd that when writing people embolden for emphasis? Fair enough I suppose. I should use the italic function but I'm not sure there is one. If it was longhand I might underline. Don't you? Doesn't everybody?

Anyway, you're a lucky boy. And you were probably a front seat passenger or else your uberman wasn't very busy. Again, do I have to tell you WHY? Seems you don't understand why the cops want stuff found in taxis taken to THEM. So do the taxi firms, though I accept that uber can't drop 'finds' into the base anyway because there isn't a base. to drop them into. And bases don't want the stuff because they're not lost property offices.

Your little adventure was at the weekend wasn't it? Any idea what a taxi base is like at the weekend? As well as the app, text, even the odd email and IVR (wot's that he asks) driven work there are perhaps a dozen (in Addison Lee a hundred) telephonists plus a couple of controllers. People like you who like to over-drink the cheap stuff (you don't get a hangover with the good stuff) are puking, peeing and even sometimes stting in taxis. Bosses at account holders (wot's that he asks) are demanding immediate cars for them and their friends. Muslim drivers are knocking back jobs where a dog has unexpectedly turned up. There are fistfights and sometimes worse as drivers are being robbed or abused. And not infrequently, particularly amongst the drunks there are complaints about everything from the driver's breath to the state of the car. There are also accidents of every type and every level of seriousness. And cars breaking down mid-journey. And who's dealing with this? The controllers are, whilst the tidal wave of non-automated calls is being fielded by the telephonists. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.


( I quite enjoyed that).
Fixed that for you wink

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
CorbynForTheBin said:
Do we think BrainDrain is a cabbie? wink
C'mon lads! Pitchforks at the ready! Burn the cabbie! Burn with fire!

Nar ven cockah, d'ya fink oi droive an 'ackney ? Cor bloimey wooja Adam an' Eve it!! Flippin' roit wing roycist on a Pay Haich fred??

No mate. Just giving a bit of balance to the lauding of a tax-dodging slave-driving overrated yank pie in the sky.

Mind you in cities like London where cab users are mostly visitors, tourists and foreign moneyed immigrants it must seem like a breath of fresh air. Out in the provinces uber's confined to the city centres where they compete for much the same audience as the hacks. There's a separate world of private hire which uber doesn't really affect and can't compete with either from the punter or the driver perspective. I imagine in London private hire will be as exploitative as the hacks are, but elsewhere how can uber compete? If anything they help private hire. Where do you think all the drivers who join it and leave it go? And anyway, everyone's got an app these days without the surge pricing.

hairyben

8,516 posts

198 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
CorbynForTheBin said:
Do we think BrainDrain is a cabbie? wink
I want to pick him up on a point but he'd probably refuse to go there.

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
LotusMartin said:
Fixed that for you wink
Thanks. Must be an effort reading more than a comic bubble contains.

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
hairyben said:
I want to pick him up on a point but he'd probably refuse to go there.
Cross me palm with a pony and I'll take you anywhere you like (within 3miles). Has to be cash tho.

Zombie

1,613 posts

210 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
I spent a day in London (west end) for the first time since I was pretty much a child. Yes I've been to the big smoke on occasion but it's nearly always been for a specific task like the motorshow (as was) or, mostly, pick up a dead Alfa that I'd bought.

I had a few rides in a taxi with my host....

Errr... let me rephrase that.

I enjoyed....

Um

We used a few black cabs whilst we were out and it was genuinely pissing me off. My host insisted on paying £5 for a taxi for what was a 5 min walk. I kept telling him that. And then one driver, hearing that I thought it was a 5 min walk did 3 sides of a square to prove it wasn't and charged us a bloody tenner.

Based on my experience, I would say they're prohibitively expensive, the driver's aren't as scrupulous as they claim to be and they're massively uncomfortable.

Uber seem to be cleaning up and rightly so.

Yes the cabbies may have to pass the "test" but sat nav has largely negated this and systems that look at live traffic data and re route you effectively aren't that far away. This has the added bonus of being able to share this thought with passenger through an impartial being.

Darwinism at work.

anonymous-user

69 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
untakenname said:
Most likely, I was surprised they aren't striking about the new emission laws coming in 2018.


ULEZ requirements for taxi and private hire vehicles
Following consultation feedback (see below), and in light of funds announced by the Government, we have engaged with the taxi and private hire trade to finalise plans to change the licensing requirements for these vehicles.

Requirements for taxi and private hire vehicles (PHVs) are as follows:

From 1 January 2018, new diesel taxis will no longer be licensed in London
From 1 January 2018, all taxis presented for licensing for the first time will need to be zero emission capable; emit 50g/km CO2 with a minimum 30 mile zero emission range. A zero emission capable taxi must be petrol if an internal combustion engine is used.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emissio...
Slightly O/T but, about fking time! Can we do the same for the buses now?!?

Anyway back O/T: How the hell do uber drivers make a sustainable income whilst maintaining their vehicles, paying insurance/fuel and giving uber their cut. It just seems untenable to me. Maybe the black cabs will win the war of attrition.

drainbrain

5,637 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
MrBig said:
How the hell do uber drivers make a sustainable income whilst maintaining their vehicles, paying insurance/fuel and giving uber their cut. It just seems untenable to me. Maybe the black cabs will win the war of attrition.
They can't. It's hugely exploitative and almost entirely revolving door recruitment. It can't compete with minicabs. Neither can the hacks who only have themselves to blame for this attempt to push an exploitative version of minicab into the city centre which is the killing field for the hacks.

danllama

5,728 posts

157 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Zombie said:
I spent a day in London (west end) for the first time since I was pretty much a child. Yes I've been to the big smoke on occasion but it's nearly always been for a specific task like the motorshow (as was) or, mostly, pick up a dead Alfa that I'd bought.

I had a few rides in a taxi with my host....

Errr... let me rephrase that.

I enjoyed....

Um

We used a few black cabs whilst we were out and it was genuinely pissing me off. My host insisted on paying £5 for a taxi for what was a 5 min walk. I kept telling him that. And then one driver, hearing that I thought it was a 5 min walk did 3 sides of a square to prove it wasn't and charged us a bloody tenner.

Based on my experience, I would say they're prohibitively expensive, the driver's aren't as scrupulous as they claim to be and they're massively uncomfortable.

Uber seem to be cleaning up and rightly so.

Yes the cabbies may have to pass the "test" but sat nav has largely negated this and systems that look at live traffic data and re route you effectively aren't that far away. This has the added bonus of being able to share this thought with passenger through an impartial being.

Darwinism at work.
You may be an out of towner but you're spot on. I've lived in London all my life. Do I take black cabs? fk no. I'd rather st on my hands and clap.

Stupidly expensive. Like ridiculously.
Rude. Ignorant. Inattentive. Lazy.
Slow. Noisy. Uncomfortable.

Uber on the other hand. Good as gold. We regularly use them to drop items between locations (no passenger, just items). They get there on time and we don't worry about the items one bit.

If you asked a black cabbie to do that he'd probably spit on the ground in front of you.

And even when you're a passenger they are polite, they help you load, they are cheap and honestly make up for every shortcoming that most black cabs have.

Are black cabs worth having around? You might think so listening to the way the radio hosts on the BEEB bleet on about them, but black cabs are nothing more than a relic for tourists and people with more money than sense. The sooner they're gone the better.

Blaster72

11,586 posts

212 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
Less than minimum wage when you take all the costs into account. Then again I don't think minicab drivers have ever made great money.