Taxi Driver Online

How Uber's plans to operate in Fife could affect taxi drivers

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/2 ... i-drivers/

A Dunfermline taxi owner has warned Uber’s bid to set up in Fife could leave local drivers out of pocket and out of work – even as the ride‑hailing giant promises cheaper fares and new earning opportunities.​

Tapan Das, who works at Dunfermline City Taxis alongside manager Tahir Muzammil, says drivers across the city are bracing themselves after Uber applied for a booking office licence at Rosyth Business Centre.

If approved, the office would operate 24/7 and allow Uber to take bookings for taxis and private hire cars across Fife through its app.​

‘Not a healthy competition’

Mr Das says he is not against competition – but believes Uber’s model is a different beast entirely.​

“Any competition is good, as long as it’s a healthy competition,” he said. “But Uber is not a very healthy competition for places like here.”​

He has already seen the price gap first‑hand. Mr Das says he recently travelled from Edinburgh city centre to Dunfermline by Uber for £26 – roughly half the £50 a local firm would charge for the same journey at night‑time rates.

“Most of them work for themselves,” he said. “They take an hour, maybe £4 or £5 in fuel, and they’re still earning £20 an hour. But if you work for somebody, the driver only gets about 40 per cent.”​

Plate values at risk

Mr Das’s biggest fear is what Uber could do to drivers who have invested heavily in their taxi plates.​

Hackney carriage plates, which allow taxis to pick up passengers from ranks and on the street, are capped by councils, making them tradeable assets that can change hands for significant sums.

Drivers who have paid thousands for the right to trade in a limited market fear Uber’s arrival could wipe out that investment almost overnight.

“A lot of people bought their plates for quite a large sum of money,” Mr Das said. “Those hackney plates will be considered to be of no value. Our investment will be in danger.”​

He believes many drivers, particularly younger ones, would eventually leave local firms and sign up with Uber, attracted by the chance to get a private hire car and work through the app as self‑employed drivers.​

Dundee licence, no Dundee service

The local cab driver also points to Uber’s record elsewhere in Scotland as a warning sign for Fife.​

Uber was granted a booking office licence in Dundee in June 2024 but has still not launched a service there. Users and drivers report that while Dundee appears in the app, no cars are actually available.

“They were granted a licence in Dundee but they haven’t been operating there,” Mr Das said. “Before they apply, obviously they have done their background research, so they thought there was a market. Then when they got the permission, they’re not operating.”​

Trade already under pressure

The Uber row comes at a difficult time for the Fife taxi trade.

Fife Council’s Regulation and Licensing Committee has only just approved a five per cent rise on daytime fares and 10 per cent on night‑time fares, with the new rates not expected until around May once they are advertised and meters recalibrated. Operators say the delay has cost them thousands as fuel, insurance and maintenance costs have soared.

Mr Das says trust between the trade and the council has been damaged. “It was supposed to be within 18 months,” he said of the fare review. “It’s almost coming up to two years. They didn’t explain properly why it didn’t happen.”​

Alongside individual drivers, the East Fife Taxi Association has lodged a formal objection to Uber’s plans, warning the bid raises “serious concerns” about jobs, passenger safety and the long‑term future of the trade across the Kingdom.

The group argues Uber does not meet the legal “fit and proper person” test for a booking office and has criticised what it calls “extremely poor communication” from the council.

Uber and council respond

Uber insists it will be good for both passengers and drivers if its Fife application is approved.

A spokesperson said: “We see strong demand for Uber in Fife and hope to offer people a safe, affordable and easy option to get where they need to go. If our application is granted, our services will offer new earning opportunities for local drivers.

"On Uber, all drivers have access to industry‑leading worker rights such as holiday pay and a pension, as well as formal representation through GMB Union.”

Fife Council’s legal team manager Steven Paterson confirmed that Uber has formally applied for a booking office licence and said the application will be considered by the Regulation and Licensing Committee in due course. Councillors are expected to hear from both Uber and objectors before deciding whether to grant the licence.

For Mr Das, the stakes are simple. “A lot of the airport runs will be lost from local drivers,” he said. “We won’t be able to match those silly prices.”

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IDFIMH

And that's a bad thing?

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IDFIMH

That's a remarkably astute summary of what it's all about. And slightly unexpected from a relatively obscure publication and a reporter in his early twenties, as far as I can make out.

Maybe it's lifted from elsewhere, or related to AI or whatever - the term 'hackney carriage' in particular isn't normally used up here, or at least not to the extent down south.

They forgot the caveat emptor bit, though. 'Investments' can go down, as well as up

And funny, too, that apparently the whole trade was about to shut down completely without a fare rise. And yet no word of plates having reduced in value. Yet

Obviously he thinks the only expense an owner-driver has is fuel

But he wonders why drivers would like to run their own cars rather than get 40% of the fare? (I think that's quite a common model in Fife, as opposed to rentals...)

And I tried to find out on Google what the Uber fare was. Normally you have to sign up in some way, shape or form, but the Uber global site cited a normal fare of £39. Which sounds more realistic to me, and still well below the HC rate.

And what was he doing getting an Uber home anyway, and accepting the £26 fare - he could have found out the fare without actually booking the run. Do as I say, not as I do?

I haven't been aware of this 'rental serf' mindset since, I don't know, 30 years ago. Or thereabouts

Revealing, too, that he seems to be implying that his drivers aren't currently self-employed. Yet they are

And he then says they'll become self-employed if working for Uber. But they won't

But his comments reveal the mainly HC-oriented trade, although again he seems to be saying that drivers working PH in their own car isn't currently an option in his area.

But it is an option, at least in wider Fife, although I don't know what happens in Dunfermline specifically, nor in his own firm. I'd guess he's small scale, and owns all the cars. And maybe only HC.

But the key to understanding his comments is perhaps that Fife is mainly HC, and the circuits are mainly HC, but with PHCs working alongside them, and with meters fitted, and charging the HC rates.

But no separate private hire sector as such, like that more typical in the big cities.

But Aberdeen and Dundee are similar, which is why presumably a major reason Uber haven't been able to recruit many drivers there, if any. And, of course, there's no cross-border badging option.

On the other hand, in Uber's favour it couldn't be any easier to get a badge in Fife. Which is presumably due to what the circuits wanted. So if Uber do manage to recruit a few drivers, then the circuits will arguably reap what they have sown themselves. Ditto the clamour for fare increases

Well stop paying them, then

The issue for the multiplate owners is that they will lose drivers to Uber, and they are right to be concerned about that because that will happen, 100%.

If I were a hackney owner in that area, and Uber invited hackneys onto their Fife platform, I would very seriously consider it.

Given that you only pay for what you do, some might consider it a no-brainer.

Oh, and I've just checked the Uber app and for a normal saloon the job listed above would go £40, and £55 for a larger vehicle.

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IDFIMH

That certainly sounds more realistic - maybe a bit cheaper than HC prices, but not half price

Of course, it might promote the interests of some people in the trade if they portray Uber's pricing as being a bit lower than it actually is, on average at least...


Are there any areas in the UK where Uber allows in-area HCs on the platform (apart from London, obviousy)?

Obviously out-of-area HCs aren't an issue when it comes to pricing down south, but in Fife without the cross-border working option any HCs would need to be local, and thus the fares would be limited to the council rates.

Because of the preponderance of HCs in Fife, it would certainly help promote Uber's case if they did allow HCs, but of course that would constrain the pricing, so I'm not sure how that would work in terms of surging, or whatever it's called these days.

Uber wouldn't have to price higher than the council tariffs, but that's generally not how their business model works, at least in the UK.

On the other hand, I think in Northern Ireland, where even the PH equivalent have meters, according to Uber's website drivers seem to have to engage the meter. And can't charge any more than meter. But if the Uber fare is below meter, then it's the Uber fare that's charged

So, basically, they use Uber's dynamic pricing model, but with the metered fares being the upper limit, and the fare actually charged to the customer won't exceed the regulated tariff, irrespective of what was originally offered and agreed via the Uber app...

Anyway, asking for a friend

I'm not sure TBH.

They used to have hackneys in Lewes and Mid Sussex, but stopped when those councils adopted the 'predominantly working' condition.

Maybe someone should email them.

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IDFIMH

It'll be interesting to see how they go (assuming they get the licence, obviously).

But, like the effective one-tier badge system in Dundee and Aberdeen being broadly similar in Fife, and without a distinct private hire sector (as opposed to the mixed HC/PH fleets and metered PHVs), I think they'll find it a bit harder to recruit drivers than in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and thus more like the ongoing scenario in Aberdeen and Dundee

But I'm not aware of them having tried to recruit HCs in Aberdeen or Dundee, thus to that extent it'll presumably be the same in Fife.

But assuming it's PH-only, I can't see a mad rush to join them. Maybe in Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and Dunfermline, where I'd guess there are more PH cars operating, as opposed to the limited number in the St Andrews area working for the HC offices.

If they allowed HCs I suspect it would be easier for them to get a toehold, but if it's PH-only then the HC drivers won't want to take the risk and maybe give up their plate to have a go via a PHV. Particularly since HC plates are capped in all the Fife zones, so replating would be a big enough hassle, without the added difficulty of maybe replating back to HC.

And with the smaller scale offices and more goldfish-bowl environment in Fife, it would be more difficult for any driver to get back on a mainstream circuit if they jumped ship to Uber but then regretted it.

So it will be interesting for me to see what happens at close quarters. Assuming, of course, they're interested in getting into the market up here, as opposed to the more urban areas closer to the Forth Bridge and Edinburgh, and where indeed they're intending setting up their office

All this flubber and bluster is good fill content for the media but even better publicity for Uber

Not that I'm bothered but if I was a local up there I would challenge him to show me any town or city in the world where Uber has managed to eliminate the competition ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Was looking at Uber's web stuff the other night, and it's all very confusing. There's a ton of information, and lots of different stuff in lots of different places, and some of it is more than a tad contradictory.

I mean, at face value it all says PHV-only, but dig a bit deeper and it's a bit more nuanced...

Check out this, most obviously - scroll down to the bit headed 'Vehicle documents'

Then the heading 'Private hire vehicle licences (by city)'

https://www.uber.com/gb/en/drive/requir ... 2c9bc1f1bd

And clicking on each city (or region) reveals numerous mentions of hackney carriages, and the relevant councils. Including Mid-Sussex under Brighton and Sussex, and Melton under Leicester

And in some regions (Nottingham and North East) there's almost as many HC councils listed as PHV councils. The Leicester region actually lists six HC councils, but only one PHV council

But, and particularly in view of the HC councils in question, I'd guess they're operating out-of-area, and thus the regulated tariffs don't have to be adhered to. And, presumably, the councils listed don't have 'intended use' policies.

Equally, I'd guess a lot of the information is out-of-date and otherwise a bit misleading. I mean, for example, Dundee is listed under the Aberdeen heading, as well as Aberdeen itself