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Parklife teams up with 'safer' Uber taxis to tackle unlicensed cabs picking up revellers


PARKLIFE organisers are teaming up with Uber taxis for this year's event in a bid to tackle unlicensed cabs picking up revellers.

Councillor Alan Quinn, who has been working closely with the festival since it moved to the Heaton Park site four years ago, says that it will be a "safer" option for those wanting to get home.

The Uber taxi service is accessed via a smartphone app where the customer can call a cab by tapping in their location and destination, and can also check the price before booking.

However, it is not known at this stage whether its controversial surge pricing will be in place, where riders can pay up to 10 times the price depending on demand to attract more drivers to the road.

Cllr Quinn said: "Parklife will be working with Uber taxis, which is safe for revellers because no money exchanges hands, and they will be picking up at Sainsbury's.

"We have had complaints in the past about private hire cabs not going through the operator and picking up illegally, for example. So I will be asking Bury licensing to be on the lookout for rogue taxis."

Parklife festival will return to the Prestwich site for the fourth year on June 11 and 12, and will welcome more than 140,000 revellers across the weekend.

One thing that will be new this year is the community fund – which Cllr Quinn and his Labour colleague Cllr Andrea Simpson have worked hard to make happen.

He said: "They aim to raise a minimum of 30,000 for the fund. Twenty per cent will go to the Super Josh charity, and the rest can be bid on by local organisations. We're looking at grants of £500 to £2,500 and in Prestwich, St Mary's, Sedgeley and Holyrood wards are eligible to bid.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for local causes to benefit from the festival."

Other key elements will largely remain the same, such as the security and cleaning companies.

Cllr Quinn said: "At the meeting, Parklife said that consistency is the key.

"Police from Manchester and Bury will come under one commander, and we will have the same external headquarters which will deal with things like parking, cleaning and public urination. The residents' parking went down well last year, so we will continue with that.

"One thing we do need is better directions and signage for people that walk to Manchester – and importantly, we need to get them away from the venue more quickly and quietly."

source: http://www.burytimes.co.uk/NEWS/1439242 ... revellers/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Councillor Alan Quinn, who has been working closely with the festival since it moved to the Heaton Park site four years ago, says that it will be a "safer" option for those wanting to get home.


and how has he come to that conclusion via a little brown envelope ?

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

How far in advance can you make a booking with UBER? Is he really expecting people to take a chance that there will be enough cars available to avoid surge pricing and get everyone home. Maybe he needs to be told by the trade up there how this is such a bad idea.

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Grandad,

maybe the trade ought to let it all go wrong and get uber well and truly roasted in the press for surge charging all the festival goers which is what will happen once it gets to end of the last sets

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

if UBER has a large proportion of it's available cars at this venue, who will be taking their regular city centre customers home?

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Grandad,

Anyone who knows anything about this trade is well aware you need 100s and 100s of cabs when festivals finish.

And that's why Uber are getting involved, as they know f*** all.

However their lack of service will hurt them, so we can only watch and laugh.

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IDFIMH

Uber have Licences for all 10 greater Manchester boroughs....but how many drivers they actually have I don't know.
I doubt they will be able to cope with the demand.

Yes brown envelopes do help when contracts are awarded !

This gets better...Uber are now going to take ''cash'' from customers as opposed to payment by credit or debit cards...
This will enable their drivers to take instant bookings at the festival and take cash.
I believe this is the remit of Hackneys but obviously not in Manchester !

I bet they'll have a mobile booking office.

I'm not sure the method of payment is an issue.

For it to be legal the job needs to be prebooked, so instant bookings will be treated in the same way as instant bookings for all other ph.

The booking will still have to go through the uber booking process and that will create an audit trail if anyone has any enforcement issues.

Ive just paid cash for a Uber car. Two miles for 51p. :

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IDFIMH

Councillor Alan Quinn is Labour

https://councildecisions.bury.gov.uk/mg ... PID=560502

I wonder if the good councillor is aware that uber claiming to be safer recently cost them $10 million?

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28919

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin