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Uber granted fresh operating licence by Transport for London 'with conditions'

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transpo ... 83244.html

Ride-hailing firm Uber has been granted a new operating licence in London “with conditions”.

Transport for London confirmed the operator’s application for a licence had been approved on Friday.

A TfL spokesperson said: “Uber has been granted a London private hire vehicle operator’s licence for a period of 30 months, with conditions.”

No details of the conditions of the licence are yet to be released by TfL.

Andrew Brem, Uber General Manager for UK, said in a statement: ““Uber is focused on being the best partner to London and we will continue to keep raising the bar on safety, leading the way in improving working conditions for drivers, and pushing to electrify every car on the Uber platform.”

An estimated 3.5 million Londoners use Uber.

It has helped lead to the rise in popularity of minicabs and the decline of the traditional London licensed black taxi.

Latest TfL figures show that there are just over 17,000 licensed taxi drivers in London but more than 108,000 minicab drivers.

There are only 14,600 black cabs but more than 94,000 licensed minicabs.

TfL, which regulates the private hire and licensed black taxi market, has twice before withdrawn Uber’s licence to operate in London, in 2017 and 2019, over passenger safety concerns.

In both cases, Uber was allowed to continue operating pending court appeals. A magistrate gave the firm its licence back in 2018, as did a High Court judge in 2020, after a successful appeal by Uber.

Subsequent to the second appeal, TfL awarded Uber a 30-month contract in March 2022.

In 2019, TfL decided Uber did not meet the “fit and proper” requirements for private hire operators.

Inspectors discovered that at least 14,000 journeys were undertaken by drivers who effectively faked their identity - using another Uber account after exploiting “vulnerabilities” in the company’s app.

Ahead of TfL’s latest decision, the IWGB union had expressed concern that lack of journey data from Uber meant that TfL was unable to establish whether drivers were suffering from an industry-wide problem of working long hours for pay rates below the legal minimum.

Uber has said the safety of passengers is paramount.

“To use the Uber app in the UK, drivers must hold a valid private hire licence from a local authority in their region, which includes an Enhanced DBS background check,” it says on its website.

“Since TfL raised concerns in 2017, we have introduced a number of new features, strengthened our systems and processes and partnered with safety organisations to lead and support important campaigns.

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