Uber are getting shirty

[7795]

skwdenyer said:

7795 said:

Black Cabs are too expensive. Consumer demand has spoken and will win. The rest is just waffle.

LOL fair enough - posting when tired is not an aid to brevity and clarity.

TL;DR version: is it a reasonable expectation on the part of taxi drivers (especially those who have only just got through The Knowledge) that London / TfL should protect the investment of time those who have invested it have made? Those people played by the rules against the promise of something.

I genuinely feel for the Black Cabs. But the mantra from the top, from those who run the LTDA has been so wrong for so wrong it could almost be found negligent. Someone better than me please dig out Ken Livingstone's' warnings to the LTDA 10 years ago. He warned of this day and yet here we are...


Times have moved on.

[Vaud]

In related news from the Newt loving former Mayor:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul...

Where is Sadiq and TFL on the big issues of pollution? Or is he victim to lobbying on this topic as well?

[Whoozit]

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.

[anonymous-user]

Vaud said:

In related news from the Newt loving former Mayor:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul...

Where is Sadiq and TFL on the big issues of pollution? Or is he victim to lobbying on this topic as well?

If that is repeating the '40,000 a year die' stat, then it's epidemiological naughtiness.

This http://talkradio.co.uk/news/sadiq-khans-40000-poll... is an interesting listen from a respiratory physician at the University of Brighton.

Depending on how it's added up, it's a guess that if you live your whole life in London, then on average you might possibly die at 90 rather than 90.5, possibly

[Vaud]

wsurfa said:

If that is repeating the '40,000 a year die' stat, then it's epidemiological naughtiness.

This http://talkradio.co.uk/news/sadiq-khans-40000-poll... is an interesting listen from a respiratory physician at the University of Brighton.

Depending on how it's added up, it's a guess that if you live your whole life in London, then on average you might possibly die at 90 rather than 90.5, possibly

I'll take a listen, thanks for sharing.

[miniman]

Whoozit said:

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.

And there it is. I'd rather be paid in cash that the tax man has no visibility of but, as Brian Potter would say, life's a sthouse.

[anonymous-user]

miniman said:

I will happily pay more for a *genuinely* professional driver who has done The Knowledge because I think it outwits satnav / Waze at every turn. However I would like to pay by card. Surely that's not controversial?

I take four or five cabs most weeks and it's been quite a while that I haven't been able to pay by card but that doesn't seem to tally with most posters' experience.

[Vaud]

desolate said:

I take four or five cabs most weeks and it's been quite a while that I haven't been able to pay by card but that doesn't seem to tally with most posters' experience.

Maybe they target "easy pickings" who are less likely to complain - airport runs, KX, etc but it hasn't improved in my experience.

[Blaster72]

desolate said:

I take four or five cabs most weeks and it's been quite a while that I haven't been able to pay by card but that doesn't seem to tally with most posters' experience.

That's because most are just making it up

[Legacywr]

Why are they reluctant to take payment by card?

[miniman]

Maybe my mistake is asking "card ok?" on entry, rather than waiting until the end of the journey before waving it at him where he has the two options of take a card or get fk all.

[miniman]

Legacywr said:

Why are they reluctant to take payment by card?

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

[skwdenyer]

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?

[Legacywr]

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?

[ClaphamGT3]

I travel by some form of cab several times a day. If I'm on my own or organising, it's always Uber. If others, sometimes it's a black cab. More often than not, card payments are not possible in the black cab - usually 'sorry guv, machine's broken' ruse.

[kev1974]

ClaphamGT3 said:

More often than not, card payments are not possible in the black cab - usually 'sorry guv, machine's broken' ruse.

This seems like something that TfL could fix in a day if they wanted to - either insist that the cabs carry two separate card machines, or that the cab must return to some base / card machine shop straight away to swap it out if it's out of order, or just insist that if the in cab card machine isn't working then they must take the payment via some web gateway directly on a regular smartphone and type the card number in.

it's funny that said machines are rarely out of use in shops or restaurants and plenty of those run on 3G just like the ones in cabs will use.

I guess there is simply no will in TfL or HMRC to fix it properly?

[Carl_Manchester]

TheLimla said:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/25/u...

Bet this isn't what the cabbies wanted to hear, they thought it was all over....

hah yes indeed thing is, even if uber capitulates, lyft will move in because uber have done the hard work for them.

[drainbrain]

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?

[popeyewhite]

Carl_Manchester said:

TheLimla said:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/25/u...

Bet this isn't what the cabbies wanted to hear, they thought it was all over....

hah yes indeed thing is, even if uber capitulates, lyft will move in because uber have done the hard work for them.

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.

[ClaphamGT3]

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?

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