February 10, 2016
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Taxi drivers brought central London to a standstill to highlight the threats to their trade from Uber and changing regulation.
February 10, 2016
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Taxi drivers brought central London to a standstill to highlight the threats to their trade from Uber and changing regulation.
Organizers said about 8,000 drivers took part in the protest on Wednesday afternoon, as traditional black cabs blocked lanes the length of Whitehall and halted much traffic around Westminster and the West End.
Black-cab drivers have been incensed by the actions of Transport for London (TfL) in licensing Uber, blurring the lines between traditional taxis and private hire.
Unite, the union that represents many black-cab drivers, claims the government is biased against their trade and claims light-touch regulation will threaten passenger safety as well as drivers’ incomes.
Black cab fill the streets around Trafalgar Square
The protesters aimed their anger at both TfL and the government. A 47-year old taxi driver from Kent, who would only give his name as Jon, said: “We’re not worried about competition: we’ve had minicabs and Addison Lee for years. Why has this American company come here and been given free rein? I spent three years doing the knowledge at a cost of £6,000-10,000, and bought a £40,000 cab that’s wheelchair accessible.”
Another driver, Alice Cudlip, in traffic at Trafalgar Square, said the protest was about more than the taxi trade: “Across London, smaller businesses are being taken away, everything’s becoming more bland. The taxi trade which has soul and tradition is being removed and that really makes me angry. Ultimately the government is bowing down to companies like Uber, who push them around and don’t pay tax – they pay as much as four taxi drivers.”
Uber said the action had been driven by taxi drivers having their “bureaucratic” demands rejected after a recent consultation. Tom Elvidge, the general manager of Uber in London, said: “This protest was sparked when Transport for London dropped plans for bureaucratic new rules on licensed private hire drivers, such as five-minute minimum waiting times. But Londoners made clear they didn’t want to be slowed down, with more than 200,000 opposing those proposals.”
On Tuesday, Uber announced its app would allow customers to book black cabs on zero commission for a year, in what it claimed was an olive branch to taxi drivers.
A driver shows his displeasure
The Met police said the action finished peacefully around 4pm with no arrests, and did not confirm the numbers involved.
Courtesy: The Guardian
