Picture from BBC News
Central London was brought to a standstill in protest… and all because of a mobile phone app! If you haven’t been keeping up with the news, or should I say app technology, let me briefly explain. There is a mobile phone app called Uber and it is used by people to book and pay for taxi journeys. Using GPS, the app on your smartphone locates your nearest taxi driver; you can track that taxi, pay via your phone, and even split the taxi fare with fellow passengers using Uber’s credit card system!
Ok, what’s the problem, you ask. Well, Uber isn’t regulated, i.e. unlicensed taxi drivers are contacted by the technology and there are no checks as to whether they are legitimate or not. Also, Uber doesn’t have to adhere to the same rules and regulations as London’s taxi drivers; the app has the capability of calculating the cost of a journey, essentially like a taxi meter, but only London’s black cabs are legally entitled to us this meter… hence the protest!
The LTDA (Licensed Taxi Drivers Association) said that an element of the demonstration was to highlight the training that a taxi driver must do (four to seven years!) before they can become a licensed taxi driver. So, roads around Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and Whitehall, from 2.00pm this afternoon, were gridlocked.
Let’s be clear here. The protest is against the Uber app itself; taxis have been using apps for quite a while now. The protest is about legality, i.e. that all taxis should have to follow the same rules as everyone else, and around 4,000 taxi drivers took part in the protest. And despite warnings from Transport for London about the protest, it appears that the scale of it caused more disruption than expected. And it’s now just London taxi drivers that are protesting; those in Paris, Berlin and Milan are also against the Uber app, for the very same reason, legality. Similar demonstrations are due to take place in these cities, as well as Madrid and Rome… I suspect Uber are feeling the heat right now!