Cabbies Protest.

kabayiri

I find it informative that the mobile comms technology is now considered mature enough to support new opportunities like this.

Why stop at cabbies? Thousands of cars performing regular commutes during weekdays or weekends are a potential vessel for delivering parcels. Why do I need to buy a power drill if an app finds one I can borrow for a small fee in my locality.

Interesting times indeed

Mkl79

The issue is not competition. Minicabs have been around for 50 odd years with no issues until uber barged in. It is their brazen disregard for the rules and tfl's weakness in enforcing them that cab drivers are concerned with. Also the question of fairness,a taxi drver takes 3/4 years and lots of his/her own £££'s to train up to a certain level required by tfl to do the job,then they go and let uber swoop in and steal the food from the cab drivers table and the clothes off their backs then wonder why there is unrest!!
Uber are trendy at the moment. As soon as people realise that they are just plain old minicabs this whole sorry episode will be put to bed.
P.s a cab drivers brain beats a satnav in london 9.5 times out of 10!

padington

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Be a shame, as black cabs are a useful way of traversing London.

Sat Navs alone will be crap!

You can get black cabs on uber, uber is just a way of calling a number of different taxi's, you chose which type you want.

Believe me, uber is an amazing thing and has revolutionised traveling around London.

If I go to a city now and they don't have Uber it feels a bit third world.

Whether uber will survive any laws they may or may not have broken, the technology is fricking amazing and they deserve a Nobel peace prize for the efficiency savings they have brought to city travel.

Personally I believe I should have the right to be able to share a strangers car if I should want to. It's called car sharing, it's a great thing, especially with so many checks and balances that uber technology gives the user.

However ultimately uber is just a way of giving the customer a choice of vehicle, with a couple of taps of the button, to arrive within minutes, everything logged, no one needing any cash, drivers name, photo and number plate available before the driver even turns up.

westernpromise

Mkl79 wrote: »

The issue is not competition. Minicabs have been around for 50 odd years with no issues until uber barged in. It is their brazen disregard for the rules and tfl's weakness in enforcing them that cab drivers are concerned with. Also the question of fairness,a taxi drver takes 3/4 years and lots of his/her own £££'s to train up to a certain level required by tfl to do the job,then they go and let uber swoop in and steal the food from the cab drivers table and the clothes off their backs then wonder why there is unrest!!
Uber are trendy at the moment. As soon as people realise that they are just plain old minicabs this whole sorry episode will be put to bed.
P.s a cab drivers brain beats a satnav in london 9.5 times out of 10!

So let the customer choose. Top dollar for a London cabbie and his brains, or a satnav for what, half the money? If black cabs are that goods they'll win. Uber and the like will only be used by people who can't afford black cabs.

padington

Mkl79 wrote: »

The issue is not competition. Minicabs have been around for 50 odd years with no issues until uber barged in. It is their brazen disregard for the rules and tfl's weakness in enforcing them that cab drivers are concerned with. Also the question of fairness,a taxi drver takes 3/4 years and lots of his/her own £££'s to train up to a certain level required by tfl to do the job,then they go and let uber swoop in and steal the food from the cab drivers table and the clothes off their backs then wonder why there is unrest!!
Uber are trendy at the moment. As soon as people realise that they are just plain old minicabs this whole sorry episode will be put to bed.
P.s a cab drivers brain beats a satnav in london 9.5 times out of 10!

The next generation of sat navs will be updated by many of the cars on the road mapping the city in real time and this system will batter any chance a human without this technology has of navigating traffic flows from just about any point within a city.

The knowledge is now a redundant 'technology'. Time to move on. It's a punishing and moronic thing to now expect a human being to have to endure learning over 350 routes and every road in between plus all landmarks. Time for all those bright brains to be put to better use.

... Or time for the brighter ones anyway.

kinger101

Generali wrote: »

No there weren't as Ebay wasn't circumventing any laws.

They weren't doing much to stop criminal activity either at one point. Don't know if that's changed now.

mwpt

Mkl79 wrote: »

The issue is not competition. Minicabs have been around for 50 odd years with no issues until uber barged in. It is their brazen disregard for the rules and tfl's weakness in enforcing them that cab drivers are concerned with. Also the question of fairness,a taxi drver takes 3/4 years and lots of his/her own £££'s to train up to a certain level required by tfl to do the job,then they go and let uber swoop in and steal the food from the cab drivers table and the clothes off their backs then wonder why there is unrest!!
Uber are trendy at the moment. As soon as people realise that they are just plain old minicabs this whole sorry episode will be put to bed.
P.s a cab drivers brain beats a satnav in london 9.5 times out of 10!

In which case, black cabs have nothing to fear from Uber and are wasting their time with their disruptive road protests and so forth. Let both exist in the market and let the customer choose.

Mkl79

Completley agree about the protests,massive own goal. The trade is not helping itself at all. Instead of blocking already busy roads and crying about "its a meter" or "public saftey" they should be thinking of ways to compete and then marketing aggressivley. They need to be thinking about fixing or capping their prices,each driver is a seperate 'business' so has the power to do this,if enough of them do things like that then there is hope for them. Also as the older ones leave/retire the younger ones are happy to go anywhere,(even 'south of the river!).

kaflinkle

If I was a cab driver, I'd be more incensed at the GoCompare adverts.

I tried to have a go at the knowledge once. It was ridiculous. First meeting, one bloke didn't turn up in a suit and got ridiculed in front of others. We were all told we'll probably fail. The books cost a small fortune, it wasn't for me. In the days of ever advancing technology, I do believe the knowledge needs to be revamped.

Every cab driver I meet seems to hate the job as well. My father was a cabbie and he hated it (mind you I think my father hates everyone so maybe that's not a good example).

Mkl79

The thing is the knowledge is SO hard that once people are through it they think the hard bit is done and its the easy life from now on,but that is not the case especially now. They still need to provide a service and that now has to go further than simply knowing the route. They should all dress smartly,clean their cabs, be polite and helpful,try to avoid traffic and go anywhere passengers want. All that,along with some flexibility on fares for long journeys or hitting traffic and an agressivly marketed charm offensive,would go a long way to restoring them as the best taxi drivers in the world instead of simply the most knowledgable. There is plenty of room to co exist,a middle ground just needs to be reached and we are clearly not there yet!!
Here's an idea,why dont they say 1 year on the knowledge,then 2 years driving for Uber,then you take a test and either qualify to drive a black cab or you do another year with uber. Make Uber like a sort of training for the cab trade?