J
The main issue our trade has with Uber is the instant flag down with their app. We were/are told if we do the Knowledge of London, (which took me 3 and a half years putting in roughly 40-50 hours a week of unpaid study and all the other costs incurred) and we buy or rent a vehicle specified by TFL and we charge a price set by parliament, that only we have the privilege of picking up off the street.
I'm sorry you lost out, the last generation of cabbies to have to jump through such hoops. I lost out with house prices, owning a dingy flat in Leighton Buzzard that's still in negative equalty while pouring most of my earnings into renting a 3 bed house. But then I was sensible, putting 6 months wage as a deposit and getting a mortgage for 3.5 times my salary. Friends who had help from the bank of mum-and-dad and took out 5x mortgages all bought massive houses 3 years earlier. My point is, ..it happens, someone is left holding the parcel. Someone always loses, although it's very unlucky to lose in every way. I don't know how old you are, but if you're lucky you'll still receive a pension. People leaving school this year won't.
Private hire CAN ONLY be pre-booked.
At Manchester airport I "prebook" a car from Arrow, walk outside and it's waiting, 2 minutes top. With Uber, I "prebook" a car from Uber, walk outside, and it's waiting.
And unlike Hackney drivers they never complain about taking me home "it's too short, I've been waiting 2 hours I deserve a trip to Leeds". And "No, cash only mate", and a receipt scribbled on a piece of paper that noone from HMRC would accept.
Obviously nobody saw how technology was going to develop but the app system is simply flagging a car down electronically. If the middle classes who paid for their degree's were told your degree is now worthless for your chosen employment they would be complaining too.
Most degrees are worthless for a chosen employment, they're used to get your "foot in the door", and more and more companies are downplaying them due to the ridiculous costs.
The second issue is Uber's business model is unsustainable in it's present form. The driver has to pay between 20-30 % of their earnings to Uber depending on the logarithm. They are demanding their drivers buy/lease eco friendly vehicles which are not cheap. After expenses a lot of drivers are not earning minimum wage and it's well known that they are claiming working tax credits.
That may be, and it's a concern. I've asked a few Uber drivers about it, one in Manchester said that he was earning 50% more than he earnt working for a local minicab firm. Another in Reading said the only downside was he had to pay tax on every penny - something that hackney drivers and minicab drivers don't do. I think this is overblown. There's nothing (apart from perhaps government regulation) stopping an Uber driver from driving for multiple minicab firms, all who can compete on service and price. Startup costs are pretty small. This keeps prices low, and if Uber don't pay enough for their drivers, they won't get any drivers.
The thing to worry about, and no driver I've spoken to has brought this up apart from a normal taxi driver in Singapore a few months ago, who accosted me out of the blue as we drove past Raffles - robot taxis will do everyone, taxi drivers and uber drivers alike - out of business. I said I don't expect it for 20 years in general, but it's coming.
Uber is registered as a Technology company in Holland because it gives them a preferential rate of tax of about 6%. Of course when they want an operators licence in our country they miraculously become a transport company but because all their income is funnelled off shore they don't pay tax anyway. They have paid no corporation tax to date and state they are not making any profit, (a company valued at 80 billion pounds and no profit!). So as well as hitting our treasury by not paying any tax on their earnings, there is the double whammy of the UK taxpayer subsiding their exploitative business model by topping up drivers wages.
I agree that tax avoidance by big business is a major problem, one that should be tackled, but isn't. Sadly Uber is just a tiny tip of the iceberg - it's not just the consumer brands like Starbucks, Vodafone, Amazon etc, but even companies like Astra-Zeneca. However, it's a global problem, and it's one of the things that changed my political leanings over the last 10 years. Force AZ to pay tax and they leave for greener pastures, taking a lot of high paid jobs with them. The country can't survive on a local economy alone, not at our level of expectation (2 kids, a 3 bed semi, free schooling, 40 hours a week, NHS and a new TV every few years).
In London we are considered an expensive option but we are consistently voted the best taxi service in the world by business travellers and tourists.
Customer satisfaction polls return something like 85% which the likes of John Lewis or Marks & Spencer's could only dream of, unfortunately our trade is not the most forward thinking because we are all single business's and we don't have the slick PR or money to fight it.
If 85% of your customers are happy, why are they leaving you in droves? Is it because people value cheap over good? (to be honest, I find Uber drivers far better than the average black cab driver). Same thing happened with planes, that's why it's really hard to get you coat in the overhead locker on a plane as everyone brings massive bags with them, rather than pay £5 to put them in the hold.
in 5 years there will be no trade and if there is it definitely won't be one where you earn a living wage.
That's the way almost every job will be going in the next 50 years. As technology removes localisation, in 50 years time you won't have Uber drivers. I doubt there will be train drivers either, certainly not tube drivers. Heck, robot taxis start trials in Japan NEXT YEAR, with service planned for 2020.
Obviously, I'm biased but Uber is the worst face of capitalism. There business is parasitic, they believe they can do as they wish and because of the size of there company nobody can stop them.
I don't think it's anywhere near the worst, but it's just a pebble in a massive avalanche that is rather concerning when viewed over time. Uber (in the UK) however, as far as I can tell, generally acts within the rules of a minicab firm. I'm not sure where this myth that Uber is "well-in with the guberment init" - smacks of conspiracy theory ravings. The sad fact is that global governments are powerless to stop the new-look globalised world even if they wanted to. Look at Syriza. For every people saying "I want £10 an hour" there are 50 people from the undeveloped world that will happily live 6 to a room and work for £5 an hour knowing they can send £300 a week home and have their families live like kings.
Fundamentally there's a global equalisation going on in the 21st century, and as part of the 1% (assuming like me you earn more than £22k a year), we're going to be losing out.
Didn't mean to ramble on so long, but can't wait to get out and join everyone in the rail industry.
I suspect much of it is off topic (and my reply even more so, I get like that
). I wish you luck and hope you make it to retirement before major changes in the industry.
