Uber are getting shirty

[drainbrain]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Because it's easier to use Uber who take payment off my Amex card and e-mail me a receipt within seconds of leaving the cab. My office 'harvests' my inbox for Uber receipts every Friday and matches them to my diary so that they can allocate them to re-chargeable/overhead/personal in oracle. Hey presto, there's a record of expenses, backed by a receipt for clients, my expenses get paid the following Tuesday and I get a downloadable file of all Uber invoices in one place that i can check against my Amex bill at the end of the month

Several taxis a day? Over 100 transactions a month??

That's 'easier' than just using the service and getting an account to pay once a month?? Plus account holder benefits??

Oh well. Must be a special London form of 'easier'.

[ashleyman]

drainbrain said:

Several taxis a day? Over 100 transactions a month??

That's 'easier' than just using the service and getting an account to pay once a month?? Plus account holder benefits??

Oh well. Must be a special London form of 'easier'.

Most creative agencies I work with use Addison Lee. They book cars for people and put the client name in the notes field. Accounts then deal with the rest. All done through a mobile app.

I have an Addison Lee account, I prefer it to Uber when in London. When I'm in America I favour Uber because it's a totally different service out there and makes sense.

The only benefit I can see to paying for your own cabs for business is loyalty reward points be it AMEX, Avios or some other form of reward.

[Frank7]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

I bet that black cab drivers are in deep despair that you won't be going back to black cabs, TR.
And not for nothing, but the plural of taxi is taxis, not taxi's, just helping.

[Burwood]

drainbrain said:

Why aren't you who regularly use taxis not running accounts? Ok there's probably no such thing as an uber account but the black hacks and private hire should do them. Then you pay weekly or monthly bills and get 'extras' like priority when booking or discount or whatever incentive the firm can think up........or doesn't this exist in London?

Accounts require records/paper which is an issue for black cabs who trouser cash

[BJG1]

drainbrain said:

Several taxis a day? Over 100 transactions a month??

That's 'easier' than just using the service and getting an account to pay once a month?? Plus account holder benefits??

Oh well. Must be a special London form of 'easier'.

Uber do business accounts (though don't think they do credit)

[djdest]

https://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/uber-fa...

[skwdenyer]

Burwood said:

drainbrain said:

Why aren't you who regularly use taxis not running accounts? Ok there's probably no such thing as an uber account but the black hacks and private hire should do them. Then you pay weekly or monthly bills and get 'extras' like priority when booking or discount or whatever incentive the firm can think up........or doesn't this exist in London?

Accounts require records/paper which is an issue for black cabs who trouser cash

All black cabs will provide receipts. Often blank ones, of course...

[skwdenyer]

rscott said:

Surely if someone has been assaulted, they should be reporting it to the police themselves, not relying on Uber (or any other private organisation) to do it for them? Seems like Uber normally do pass on allegations to TFL (but didn't in one case). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/13...


As for the medical certificates, this https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1897962/investigatio... suggests it's also minicab drivers getting them. Have TFL insisted all of those get re-tested too?

Edited by rscott on Monday 25th September 12:30

What I meant was this: if your local independent minicab office had failed to comply with an absolute requirement, would they expect a "discussion" or a penalty / censure / whatever? Why should Uber be different? Would they also get a "discussion" for, say, a driver's ticket for running a red light or some other absolute requirement / offence?

[popeyewhite]

skwdenyer said:

Why should Uber be different?

Because American, arrogance, entitlement, that's the way they do things over there.

[skwdenyer]

popeyewhite said:

skwdenyer said:

Why should Uber be different?

Because American, arrogance, entitlement, that's the way they do things over there.

LOL indeed.

[Shakermaker]

Legacywr said:

skwdenyer said:

miniman said:

Legacywr said:

Why are they reluctant to take payment by card?

Because there is an audit trail. Cash = no tax.

Don't modern taximeters have x and z readings, etc?

I'd assumed they must have some sort of digital record these days?

I'm sure they have a digital record of what the meter says

But what about all those extra 50ps and £1s that they get which round the price up to a convenient figure for the driver and passenger? I've never had a problem giving them the remaining £1 if it makes it up to a tenner and I know that goes in his pocket

But then sometimes I've only ever had a card on me and no cash, so they have lost their tip in that instance.

[jamoor]

Shakermaker said:

I'm sure they have a digital record of what the meter says

But what about all those extra 50ps and £1s that they get which round the price up to a convenient figure for the driver and passenger? I've never had a problem giving them the remaining £1 if it makes it up to a tenner and I know that goes in his pocket

But then sometimes I've only ever had a card on me and no cash, so they have lost their tip in that instance.

Has anyone ever rounded down I wonder?

The only place I have had that is tokyo, the driver rounded down from 440 to 400.

[Shakermaker]

jamoor said:

Shakermaker said:

I'm sure they have a digital record of what the meter says

But what about all those extra 50ps and £1s that they get which round the price up to a convenient figure for the driver and passenger? I've never had a problem giving them the remaining £1 if it makes it up to a tenner and I know that goes in his pocket

But then sometimes I've only ever had a card on me and no cash, so they have lost their tip in that instance.

Has anyone ever rounded down I wonder?

The only place I have had that is tokyo, the driver rounded down from 440 to 400.

It isn't common in the UK but in many countries they don't have small denomination currency and so commonly will round DOWN anything ending in 1 or 2 to the nearest 0, and round up anything 3 or 4 to the nearest 5 (anything 1-4 goes down and anything 5-9 goes up) - and everyone seems happy with this system and it evens out.

[7795]

Whoozit said:

Vaud said:

Exactly. 50% of my recent cab journeys have had that excuse.

Or "my cab is in for repair, no machine in this one" or "it's just run out of paper" etc.

The one time recently I took a black cab, the machine worked fine. The audible sigh and look of disgust when I said I'd pay by card, was free.

The fact is this...

When you have a speedo that is "not working" nice little people offer "speedo correction" to help fix it. They do this openly in the back of car magazines.

The same services are available for Black Cabs and their fare machine. How much do you want it to show at the end of the month? (how much tax do you want to pay). Of course, this is not free and is highly illegal (this was fact a few years ago and I know one of the guys who had it done monthly)

If you want to pay on cards it scuppers the plan as there will be a paper trail for HMRC. This is why the Black Cabs have fought tooth and nail NOT to have the card machines in their cabs and hate it when you try to pay on one; hence, often they do not work.

Edited by 7795 on Tuesday 26th September 16:45

[skwdenyer]

7795 said:

The fact is this...

When you have a speedo that is "not working" nice little people offer "speedo correction" to help fix it. They do this openly in the back of car magazines.

The same services are available for Black Cabs and their fare machine. How much do you want it to show at the end of the month? (how much tax do you want to pay). Of course, this is not free and is highly illegal (this was fact a few years ago and I know one of the guys who had it done monthly)

If you want to pay on cards it scuppers the plan as there will be a paper trail for HMRC. This is why the Black Cabs have fought tooth and nail NOT to have the card machines in their cabs and hate it when you try to pay on one; hence, often they do not work.

Edited by 7795 on Tuesday 26th September 16:45

OK, so society's interests are served by some serious regulation here. Just like the PCO used to be renowned for. Who do we write to?

[p1stonhead]

Last time I took a black cab I said I needed to pay by card which was all I had on me.

I only mentioned it as I was getting out for him to say ‘not working mate’.

So I asked if the ride was free then because I had no way of getting cash out on the card. It was about an £18 ride so not horrendous but not tiny either.

He got his machine working in about 15 seconds “somehow”.

[rscott]

skwdenyer said:

rscott said:

Surely if someone has been assaulted, they should be reporting it to the police themselves, not relying on Uber (or any other private organisation) to do it for them? Seems like Uber normally do pass on allegations to TFL (but didn't in one case). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/13...


As for the medical certificates, this https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1897962/investigatio... suggests it's also minicab drivers getting them. Have TFL insisted all of those get re-tested too?

Edited by rscott on Monday 25th September 12:30

What I meant was this: if your local independent minicab office had failed to comply with an absolute requirement, would they expect a "discussion" or a penalty / censure / whatever? Why should Uber be different? Would they also get a "discussion" for, say, a driver's ticket for running a red light or some other absolute requirement / offence?

Is it an absolute requirement for Uber to report incidents to the police as well as TFL? Does anyone know what the licensing requirement actually says.

Medical certificates are certainly dodgy, but it needs to be applied across all licensed drivers, not just Uber.

[skwdenyer]

p1stonhead said:

Last time I took a black cab I said I needed to pay by card which was all I had on me.

I only mentioned it as I was getting out for him to say ‘not working mate’.

So I asked if the ride was free then because I had no way of getting cash out on the card. It was about an £18 ride so not horrendous but not tiny either.

He got his machine working in about 15 seconds “somehow”.

Sounds like somebody needs to set up a simple website / app - to send an email to PCO with the reg / licence number of any cab that refuses to take a card payment. Hmm...

[p1stonhead]

skwdenyer said:

p1stonhead said:

Last time I took a black cab I said I needed to pay by card which was all I had on me.

I only mentioned it as I was getting out for him to say ‘not working mate’.

So I asked if the ride was free then because I had no way of getting cash out on the card. It was about an £18 ride so not horrendous but not tiny either.

He got his machine working in about 15 seconds “somehow”.

Sounds like somebody needs to set up a simple website / app - to send an email to PCO with the reg / licence number of any cab that refuses to take a card payment. Hmm...

Presumably that exists then?

It was one of the few times I ever took a black cab to be fair. I guess £18 taxed was worth more to him than £0 when it came down to it hehe:

[Carl_Manchester]

TheLimla said:

Does lyft have the same long term plans as uber regarding driverless cars? Uber only needs to hold the monopoly for a while before it hopes London will be totally dependent on it's driverless taxis.

On autonomous cars, Lyft is currently partnered with Daimler, GM and Jaguar Land Rover.