Transport for London awards Uber with a 30-month license

I question the use of the word "awards"

If they ever came here or any of that sort of taxi service I would not use them, prefer to use local, not that i have used a Taxi for over 2 years.

On 27/03/2022 at 06:58 AM, ad47uk said:

If they ever came here or any of that sort of taxi service I would not use them, prefer to use local, not that i have used a Taxi for over 2 years.

People who would pick you up for Uber ARE local. I prefer to pay them then outdated taxi services.

On 27/03/2022 at 07:09 AM, E.Worm Jimmy said:

People who would pick you up for Uber ARE local. I prefer to pay them then outdated taxi services.

But not a local company, Uber is yet another U.S. owned company, which to be honest treat their workers badly, with hardly any rights.
what is outdated about any taxi service? You phone them and say I want a cab at a certain time of day and there it is, or if shopping pick one up at a taxi rank. There is even one local company that uses an app, the last time I ordered a cab was just as the pandemic was starting, had to go to a funeral, I did order that one online. but to be honest, I am not bothered about all this app rubbish, sure you may be able to see where your cab is, but sometimes i prefer the older ways.
Going out for a few pints in a couple of weeks time, so i may get a taxi from there to home, but I will phone for one, using a local company.

On 27/03/2022 at 09:33 AM, ad47uk said:

But not a local company, Uber is yet another U.S. owned company, which to be honest treat their workers badly, with hardly any rights.
what is outdated about any taxi service? You phone them and say I want a cab at a certain time of day and there it is, or if shopping pick one up at a taxi rank. There is even one local company that uses an app, the last time I ordered a cab was just as the pandemic was starting, had to go to a funeral, I did order that one online. but to be honest, I am not bothered about all this app rubbish, sure you may be able to see where your cab is, but sometimes i prefer the older ways.
Going out for a few pints in a couple of weeks time, so i may get a taxi from there to home, but I will phone for one, using a local company.

Apps make it easier to book a cab without getting an "engaged" tone which is what you tend to get from a busy cab company.

You also don't have to faff around trying to find out the details of a local cab company, the app just simply pings cabbies in the area. This is especially useful when you're not in a local area.

There's no difference between a cab company or the like of Uber (Lyft, etc.) - they ARE a cab company too. For all you know the local cab company could be stiffing its locals in the exact same way.

But this is why it's good to have choice - cab companies aren't going away and are still accessible via phone. The likes of Uber are there for people who like to do things with minimal effort.

On 27/03/2022 at 12:26 PM, testman said:

Apps make it easier to book a cab without getting an "engaged" tone which is what you tend to get from a busy cab company.

You also don't have to faff around trying to find out the details of a local cab company, the app just simply pings cabbies in the area. This is especially useful when you're not in a local area.

There's no difference between a cab company or the like of Uber (Lyft, etc.) - they ARE a cab company too. For all you know the local cab company could be stiffing its locals in the exact same way.

But this is why it's good to have choice - cab companies aren't going away and are still accessible via phone. The likes of Uber are there for people who like to do things with minimal effort.

Getting an Uber has a ton of benefit compared to local can company. In Canada local cab companies are only used by old people and yes the wait times are terrible. When my phone died I asked someone else to call me a cab - wasted almost an hour. Most cab drivers are on Uber now too. I do get picked up in cars that clearly were cabs a lot.

Only in a small town / village with one established can company you can say cab is better then Uber. In a city - no freaking chance. For customers Uber wins every single way in a big city or in an are with no cabs.

Next time my phone dies I will ask a stranger to call Uber for me and give them cash for it... Seems better then cab in every way.

On 27/03/2022 at 12:26 PM, testman said:

Apps make it easier to book a cab without getting an "engaged" tone which is what you tend to get from a busy cab company.

You also don't have to faff around trying to find out the details of a local cab company, the app just simply pings cabbies in the area. This is especially useful when you're not in a local area.

There's no difference between a cab company or the like of Uber (Lyft, etc.) - they ARE a cab company too. For all you know the local cab company could be stiffing its locals in the exact same way.

But this is why it's good to have choice - cab companies aren't going away and are still accessible via phone. The likes of Uber are there for people who like to do things with minimal effort.

We have five companies, I think, 3 of them have been around for years, when I used to use a cab for shopping, I used to use one company, because I never had a problem with them. I tend to get large shopping when I go for a coffee with a friend these days as she has a car, smaller stuff I use the bike for. I think there are a few one-man bands around, some of them are not even from this city, so how on earth they do business here I don't know. But there is a difference here between taxis and what we call private hire, but the same companies run both. Taxis is what you catch from Taxi ranks or call out Taxi for, not that I see anyone do that here, it seems to be a U.S or maybe a London thing. Private hire is where you phone up for a cab, so Uber would be classed as private hire I presume.
We don't have them here, I doubt very much if they would run here, the city is not large enough. Anyway, our council is changing the licencing of cabs here, they want drivers to have a detailed knowledge of every street in the county, which is not possible and to be honest not needed as long as they know where they are going, also licence is being raised in price.
As I said, I doubt very much if Uber would ever come here Taxi wise and if they did I would not use them.

We have a choice, we have 5 companies here, people can choose between them.