App and ride service Uber not 'fit and proper' to operate in London

Government body Transport for London will not grant Uber a new license to operate in London, saying that despite improvements, it maintained a "pattern of failures.". Drivers can continue working while Uber appeals the decision.

The app and ride company Uber is to lose its licence to operate in London, one of its largest markets, after Transport for London declared it not "fit and proper." The decision follows a previous one in 2017 which saw Uber granted two extensions to its license on the condition that it address problems with the service. According to Transport for London, insufficient improvements have been made.

Helen Chapman, Director of Licensing, Regulation and Charging at TfL, said:

"While we recognize Uber has made improvements, it is unacceptable that Uber has allowed passengers to get into minicabs with drivers who are potentially unlicensed and uninsured," Helen Chapman, of Transport for London, told BBC News

"I know this decision may be unpopular with Uber users, but their safety is the paramount concern," said London Mayor Sadiq Khan. "Regulations are there to keep Londoners safe."

Approximately 45,000 drivers work for Uber in the city, but Transport for London said that it had identified a "pattern of failures by the company including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk."

"A key issue identified was that a change to Uber's systems allowed unauthorized drivers to upload their photos to other Uber driver accounts," says Transport for London in a press release.

"This allowed them to pick up passengers as though they were the booked driver," it continued, "which occurred in at least 14,000 trips - putting passenger safety and security at risk. This means all the journeys were uninsured and some passenger journeys took place with unlicensed drivers, one of which had previously had their licence revoked by TfL."

We understand we're held to a high bar, as we should be. But this TfL decision is just wrong. Over the last 2 years we have fundamentally changed how we operate in London. We have come very far — and we will keep going, for the millions of drivers and riders who rely on us.
— dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) November 25, 2019

Uber has responded publicly over Twitter, calling the decision "just wrong," and saying it has "fundamentally changed how we operate in London."

The company plans to appeal the decision and while that it goes through that process, its London drivers can continue to work. It was via a similar court process that Uber got to continue despite the 2017 decision to not renew its license.

Uber has been heavily running television and streaming ads in the UK promoting the safety of its service and the convenience of the iPhone app.

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The company has also previously broken Apple rules for submissions in the App Store.

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53 Comments

MacPro 19836 comments · 18 Years

About 4 years ago

"... Uber has allowed passengers to get into minicabs with drivers who are potentially unlicensed and uninsured"

I wonder if this is true in the USA too? "

foregoneconclusion 2834 comments · 12 Years

Uber is full of it. Their business model was always centered around not having to follow the same laws and regulations that other companies in the same market were required to follow. Their excuse for not following them was simply "our customers use an app" and nothing else. Personally, I find it bizarre that they got away with it as long as they did.

DAalseth 3025 comments · 6 Years

A bit of good news for a Monday.

williamh 1045 comments · 13 Years

foregoneconclusion said:

Uber is full of it. Their business model was always centered around not having to follow the same laws and regulations that other companies in the same market were required to follow. Their excuse for not following them was simply "our customers use an app" and nothing else. Personally, I find it bizarre that they got away with it as long as they did.

I basically agree with you. However, Uber and similar services legally take advantage of differences in the way pre-booked car services and cars picked up on the streets are regulated in many countries. To say "our customers use an app" is just shorthand for saying that the service is not a taxi service but a car hire service. In some places, the high cost of entry (through expensive "medallions" etc.) made taxi service way too expensive and ripe for some kind of competition. In a free country, why shouldn't a person be able to transport someone else for a fee? Should you need permission from the government to do anything? If you're not in a free country, you have bigger problems than this.

I lived for several years in a sort of crap-hole country where cabs coexisted with people more often just hailing random cars to get places. You'd put your hand up and some car would stop, you would tell the driver where you're going and negotiate a price if they're willing to take you there. This was very common but in retrospect rather dangerous. A service like Uber or Lyft is probably much safer (I read the article, so with caveats.) I lived in another place where the cab drivers are very professional (uniforms and everything) and maybe on a salary - no tips expected. uber or Lyft might wipe them out and I think the government basically put an end to them. Last time I was there the Lyft (or Uber?) app would book you a taxi.

sdw2001 17457 comments · 23 Years

foregoneconclusion said:

Uber is full of it. Their business model was always centered around not having to follow the same laws and regulations that other companies in the same market were required to follow. Their excuse for not following them was simply "our customers use an app" and nothing else. Personally, I find it bizarre that they got away with it as long as they did.

"The same laws and regulations" means "participate in the government-controlled monopoly." This is not about being "fit and proper." Nor is it about safety. It's about money. Government sets onerous licensing requirements with huge fees. Once they are in bed with the service providers, they, in turn, block out all competition. The same has happened in the United States, with taxi medallions. This is no different than the mafia controlling the trash business. The only real difference is it's government doing the leg breaking.