Taxi Driver Online

Intriguing strapline here, which sounds like it's the usual thing about Uber being a different beast to normal PHVs. And why should local PHVs ('minicabs' below) be extempt from the charge, but not Uber PHVs?

But it actually does make sense, as described toward the end. Not something I'd ever really thought of, though, but all this tech-based enforcement and suchlike is obviously quite complex and confusing at times


Women warn Fulham LTN forces them to walk streets alone at night

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/0 ... eets-taxi/

Black cabs and local minicabs are exempt from paying to enter the LTN, but Uber drivers risk hefty fines for doing so

Female Uber passengers have warned a council that they are being forced to walk home alone at night because their drivers will not enter a controversial low traffic neighbourhood (LTN).

The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham set up an LTN near Wandsworth Bridge Road in the west of the capital a year ago.

The South Fulham LTN means that “out of borough” motorists risk fines if they ignore no entry signs that close roads to through traffic.

While black cabs and local minicabs are exempt from paying to enter the LTN, Uber drivers risk hefty fines for doing so.

Hillary Cannon, the owner of Barrefly, a fitness studio on New Kings Road, has written to the Labour-run authority complaining its latest LTN is risking the safety of “young women”, some of whom are having to walk alone through Fulham’s streets late at night after being dropped off on boundary roads.

Explaining how one 22-year-old woman had a 15-minute walk home at 3am while the Met Police was hunting a local sex attacker, she wrote: “I felt a very real sense of horror wash over me… This [LTN] scheme appears to have created a perfect hunting ground for him and others like him.”

She added that the LTN has “not only imperilled the future of local businesses and worsened pollution for residents on arterial roads … it is now posing a very real danger to the young women of our community”.

Tabitha Willett, the 32-year-old Made in Chelsea star who visits a private members’ club and relatives in the South Fulham LTN, said she had either been forced to walk in the dark to meet a minicab or been dropped off on boundary roads by drivers who want to avoid getting a fine.


Dave Benett/Getty/Telegraph

“My club is inside the South Fulham LTN,” she said. “But, many Uber drivers refuse to drive in which means we have to walk in the dark and the rain. It’s a huge inconvenience. I blame the council for introducing the LTN.”

A council spokesman said it “is more than three years” since it first offered Uber “free access through the cameras to allow residents to be picked up and dropped off at their homes” when it introduced a previous LTN in Fulham.

“Uber has said there are data protection issues which prevent them sharing the number plates of their drivers,” he continued. “We are confident these can be resolved but we need Uber to agree to meet us at a technical level, which they have so far not done. We are still pressing for this to happen.”

An Uber spokeswoman said: “At Uber we know we have a responsibility to help ensure that everyone gets home safely.

“We are aware of these concerns and continue to be in conversation with Hammersmith and Fulham Council to try and find a workable solution for both drivers and local residents.”

Funny that it's only ever women like Tabitha who are in danger, and never the male drivers taking them home?

Maybe instead of visiting her private members' club till the early hours, Tabitha could decamp up to Aberdeen and get a job driving up there, so that other elite women (and the local headbangers) can get a car in the early hours on demand rather than the alternative of abolishing the knowledge test.

But I suspect Made In Chelsea is a better bet. Whatever Made In Chelsea is

And read the final four paragraphs in the piece - surely either the council or Uber must be bull$hitting?

I mean, if they've genuinely being trying to sort it out for three years then what hope have they got of ever finding a solution?

The council says Uber can't or won't meet them at 'the technical level', while Uber says it "continues to be in conversation" with the council?

I must be missing something here.

TfL has a list of all taxi and PH drivers licensed in London, why on earth can't they all be linked up with this council?

It's really got nothing to do with Uber.

And I'm assuming should a licensed PH driver get a ticket for going in this area surely they can appeal by sending in a copy of their PH license. Then that council can add those details to a white list of vehicles.

That's what happens down here. Every time I get a new car I get a bus lane ticket or two soon afterwards. But I appeal and my details are added to a white list. (For the record licensing automatically add the details, but sometimes there's a delay)

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IDFIMH

Sussex, I'd guess it's maybe just not technically feasible to add 100,000 vehicles en masse to the exemption system (or however many PHVs there are in London).

Alternatively, and I'd guess more likely, is that because it's a local scheme then they'll just add exempted vehicles to the database on an individual or similar basis rather than being willing to exempt every PHV in London.

Which is maybe why the article mentions 'local minicab' firms being exempt. Maybe they might not exempt a firm in Walthamstow at the other side of London, say, or a firm in East London, which in any case would have less or a need to be exempt (apart from Uber and maybe the likes of Addy Lee, I think most London minicab firms are surprisingly local in scope, at least as regards their regular customer base).

So maybe the council won't exempt every Uber car and/or the data protection issue is the sticking point for some reason. Of course, a lot of these arcane rules might just be ignored by local firms and/or the council, so it's not an issue for them.

On the other hand, while at times Uber rides roughshod over the rules, at other times the powers that be seem to hold them to a higher standard. The tall poppy thing again. And, for example, what's the betting the local minicab firms' drivers are more controlled than Uber's, but are regarded as fully self-employed.

There's a BBC London News report on it all, that doesn't even mention any 'taxi', minicab or PHV angle apart from the U-word.

(Or at least I didn't notice any mention, but can't be bothered watching it all again, although it's just four minutes or so )

https://twitter.com/BBCLondonNews/statu ... 4077127971

All sorted, everyone can now drop off there.

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/uber- ... -of-london

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IDFIMH

I'd have thought women were more likely to be "at risk" in an Uber car than walking the streets.